


Even if it Kills Me

by klaiths



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Flirty Keith (Voltron), Lion connections!!, M/M, Magical Lion Technology, Mutual Pining, Nightmares, POV Alternating, POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Panic Attacks, Pining, Sleep Paralysis, Temporary Blindness, but be on the lookout!, hair washing becuase why not, not yet..., they both know the other is pining to so dare i say mutual acknowledged pining?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2018-11-29 11:51:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11440278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klaiths/pseuds/klaiths
Summary: After Keith is hurt on a mission, emotions that can't always be named are running wild. With the guidance of the rest of the team, they sort themselves out and create something amazing.EDIT: Finally completed





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I'm publishing a VLD fic here. This is a story I've had in my head for probably almost a year, and am finally getting around to writing! Hope you enjoy!
> 
> The title is from the Motion City Soundtrack song Even If It Kills Me and might change if I can come up with something better in the future!
> 
> Comments and notes are always appreciated!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sixth moon seemed to be a place needing assistance, too bad it was all a trap.

The battle that started it all wasn’t all that different than the ones they had fought before. It was typical now for them not to form Voltron, and sometimes they didn’t even stay in their lions. Like the battle back on Trander, a small moon where the Galra had a manufacturing base where they created more robotic sentries. That battle had been quick and painless since they had planned 12 steps ahead of the curve and took the base by surprise. Evacuate the prisoners, Hunk and Lance, keep watch and fight off enemies, Shiro and Keith, and hack into the information’s system to shut down the base and potentially find a prisoner’s log, Pidge.

 

It wasn’t all that different from their battle on Plarkt where they saved a small village from a detrimental full scale Galra attack. It just so happened that the town had a handful of Quintessence magicians that the Galra wanted and were going to do anything in their power to get their hands on. Too bad for the Galra, team Voltron showed up just in the nick of time to shut them down and keep the village safe.

 

It wasn’t all that different than the battles on Zaxus or Phtrah or Gerad or Werfot, at least not in the beginning. Allura had intercepted a Galra transmission, something that happened fairly frequently now a days, that said there was to be an attack on the sixth moon of planet Vixus, Seifront. Vixus was a calm planet with a peaceful people. According to the transmission, Seifront itself held a small colony of the planets population. The moon itself was the last of the moons and was formed differently from the rest. While the others had been around since the birth of the planet, Seifront was a smaller, younger planet that got pulled into orbit. It also happened to have a core like no other, a rare metal that had unearthly and untested properties in production. Needless to say, the Galra wanted to get their hands on it.

 

The paladins headed to Seifront immediately, worm-holing almost directly on top of the moon.  When looking at the size of the moon compared to the lions, the paladins thought it best if only Hunk and Shiro stayed in their lions, one close range fighter and one cannon blaster. Lance, Keith, and Pidge would make their way to the surface in Blue. The Galra hadn’t shown up on the scanner yet so they were all on edge and ready to fight.

 

Keith, Lance, and Pidge flew down to the surface in Blue since she was a bit larger than Red or Green and allowed for the three of them to fit comfortably for the short flight down. They were closing in on the surface when Shiro’s voice rang through the comms, “Remember, diplomacy first. Only attack if provoked. The miners may be forced into work they don’t want to do, you must approach with civil intentions.”

 

They had heard the same spiel from Allura before loading up the lions. It was something drilled into their heads after the fiasco that had occurred on Phtrah- which is the main reason Keith is never chosen for sole diplomatic missions.

 

“Got it, boss,” Lance said as he landed Blue softly on the surface of the moon. The three of them quickly exited Blue and made their way to the mining colony, which seemed to be located in a large and deep crater.

 

“Do you think they’ll be Galra or yet another enslaved race?” Lance asked as he fell into step besides Keith. Pidge lead in front, keeping out her portable tablet checking readings and seismic activity from the surrounding areas and mumbled every so often about, ‘un-needed chatter.’

 

“I know the metal is important, but I don’t think they’d waste Galra soldiers,” Keith replied, eyes scanning the horizon, “If anything, it’ll probably just be a handful of sentries. It would be harder to sustain breathing apparatus for soldiers when they can just send some robots instead.”

 

“Yeah. Maybe we’ll get out of this one without a fight, right buddy?” Lance joked, jostling Keith’s arm with his elbow.

 

“Maybe.” Lance could hear the small smile creeping into Keith’s voice, something that wasn’t as rare as it used to be. He didn’t turn his head, but the leftover heat he felt from simply brushing against Keith was enough to keep a small, private smile on his face as well. Once he felt the blush begin to fade from his cheeks, Lance cleared his throat and stared at the ground, afraid of what he’d feel if he looked over.

 

 _Stupid Keith and his stupid pretty smile. We’re on a mission! Now is not the time!_ Lance internally berated himself for being distracted for a small moment.

 

They continued their trek, halting conversation to keep focused on the task at hand. Every so often Lance’s resolve would crumble and he would brush up against Keith to catch his eye. They weren’t having a verbal conversation any longer, but the looks shared between them with their small smiles carried weight.

 

This sort of thing had been going on for some time. Initially, Lance and Keith would butt heads on almost everything, it was a miracle to get them to agree, but losing Shiro and finding him again, and dismantling one Galra empire while continuing to battle another really took its toll on petty squabbles. Once Lance began trusting Keith to lead, and Keith began trusting Lance to ‘Stop being such a shithead all the time’ they found they worked well together.

 

When the castle was full of the paladins and the Alteans, Lance used to feel outcast. He remembers comparing himself to a 7th wheel, with everyone off being amazing while he felt useless. He would seek out Hunk, Pidge, and Coran at different times in an attempt to help them but usually would just be dismissed. (He would later find out this is because they were planning a surprise for him but anxiety doesn’t always tell the truth and often twists memories.)

 

What eventually pulled Lance out of his funk was Keith. Lance would often find solace in watching Keith train, soaking up every bit of information he could under the guise that he was ‘learning about his rival so he could take him down.’ If he just so happened to be appreciating Keith’s… assets at the same time, so what? He’s allowed to live, _Pidge._

 

Eventually, they made their way to the crater where the mining colony supposedly was. Even though Shiro told them to be diplomatic first, Lance still felt a tug in his gut saying that diplomacy would not be taking place. As they reached the crest of the crater and peered down, Lance’s blood ran cold.

 

 _Score one for my gut,_ Lance thought as he took in the sight in front of him.

 

The crater was about the size of 3 football fields and seemed to keep going down in a spiral pattern with a carved road twisting into the center. Imagine a rock quarry, but carved into a deep purple, almost sponge-like surface. All around they could see only Galra sentries. They were the ones pulling things out of the mine, communicating with some far-off base, and the one sending out a signal.

 

“Okay, we need a new plan,” Pidge stated as they spun around to sit on the ground, fingers already flying over her tablet.

 

“You think?” Lance said back, eyes scanning and taking in all the information he could see.

 

“Shiro! I thought this moon was supposed to have some sort of alien population, not be completely controlled by Galra Sentires!” Keith whisper-yelled into his helmet while his eyes flit from Lance to Pidge.

 

“Obviously we got the wrong information,” began Lance, “but we’re just going to have to stop them anyway. Pidge, are you catching any signs of life in the mines?”

 

“No, but the metal of the core might be interfering with my signal.”

 

“Okay, but can you see us and Shiro and Hunk on there?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then there’s no one in there. If there was a disturbance then you wouldn’t be able to see Hunk and Shiro through the moon as they orbit, would you?”

 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

 

Lance smiled at the small praise from Pidge. It was times like this where he truly felt like he belonged as a part of the team. He caught Keith’s eye and winked which cause Keith to immediately turn away.

 

“Shiro, Hunk, do you read us?” he asked, still avoiding Lance’s gaze.

 

“Guys,” Hunks voice crackled across the comms, “Allura just landed on Vixus and the central command said that no one has lived on any of the moons in centuries.”

 

The three of them shared brief eye contact only broken by Allura’s voice.

 

“Paladins, what Hunk said is true,” said Allura, “the Vixians we’re not even aware of a sixth moon that far out, let alone one full of precious metal.”

 

“It must have been cloaked somehow,” said Pidge, holding her tablet up and continuing to scrunch her eyebrows together in confusion, “I don’t understand. It must have been taken down for us to land otherwise we never would have seen the planet!”

 

At that moment they all came to the same realization: they’d walked straight into a trap

 

“We gotta get out of he-” Lance’s voice was cut off by the sudden flood of lasers being shot at them. The ground began shaking and pidge lost her balance, tumbling a small amount down the ridge they were sat on.

 

“Let’s move!” Keith shouted over the comms. Lance and Keith ran down to Pidge and helped her up before they began running again. She had managed to store her tablet and whipped out her bayard just in time to catch a sentry in the feet as it was gaining on them.

 

“Shiro! Hunk! We need an evac immediately!” Lance said as he fired behind him. Their efforts seemed to be in vain, with every sentry hit, five more seemed to take its place.

 

“We’re headed to you now, Lance!” Hunk told them, “Our ETA is about 5 minutes.”

 

Some sentries were simply shooting blasters, while others seemed to be shooting some sort of more evolved bullets. Lance saw some of the sentires kneeling down for a moment before lobbing something from the ground at the group. Lance threw up his shield just in time to deflect the projectile, but instead of rebounding it pierced through the shield. Fortunately it whizzed right past his head before traveling several feet then exploding.

 

“Did you guys just see that!” He yelled.

 

“What the fuck was that?” said Pidge, dodging her own attack of the same sort.

 

“Apparently the shields won’t work,” Keith butt in, grunting as his shield took impact from a regular blast, “Let’s try evasive maneuver 17.”

 

“Rodger,” Pidge responded before running to the right.

 

“Stay safe,” Lance said as we took off to the left. Maneuver 17 was one usually practiced in the lions, but it was very applicable to the situation at hand. Since the shields were a no go for half of the projectiles, they would need more space to dodge. In practice, the three of them had a hard time coordinating movements and often ran into each other. In battle, this could be fatal, hence maneuver 17. The basis of the maneuver was to split apart and divide fire to allow strategic dodging and worrying about one's own self. Although there were an enormous number of enemies currently at hand, dividing attention could help them concentrate on dodging and create a divide enough for a lion to swoop in and help.

 

Lance continued to dodge the bullets and explosives as he headed in the general vicinity of Blue. When he finally looked in front of him instead of over his shoulder, he almost ran directly into Keith. However, his sixth sense dedicated to knowing when Keith was in proximity stopped them from colliding and instead started up the two man machine that was the Red and Blue paladins.

 

After they stopped being intentionally annoying and aggressive to each other, Keith and Lance found they worked extremely well together. They were each other’s first choice in training and would sometimes train together without the rest of the team. After knowing each other so well, it was easy for Keith to slide up next to Lance as they ran instead of colliding and falling to the ground.

 

 _How did we end up next to each other, he was 100ft away!_ Lance thought as he looked at his side for a brief moment.

 

“Lance, Keith,” Pidge panted over the line, “if you buy me some time to get to Blue, I can use her to amplify this electromagnetic pulse to temporarily disband the sentries and get us away quicker."

 

“Okay Pidge, we got this!” Lance said nodding at Keith as the swiveled around together to face the sentires. He saw Pidge whiz past them using her jetpack to fly above the crowd and away from the sentries sensors.

 

The two headed beast of _lanceandkeith_ was released upon the sentries a moment later. Their movements were so in sync and fluid they didn’t even seem to notice the flood of sentries surrounding them. However, they weren’t fighting without problems. Lance’s shield had taken quite the beating and was almost useless at this point. Keith started to be more and more reckless with his moves to keep the sentries away from Lance, but it seemed to be in vain.

 

“Almost there guys, hold out for 10 more seconds,” Pidge’s voice crackled over the comms, giving the paladins a second wind and a burst of adrenaline. They were almost there, just a couple more seconds. In the end, it was a handful of seconds that would make all the difference needed.

 

Two things happened at once, Lance’s shield popped completely out of existence, and a sentry fired an explosive projectile right at him. Lance didn’t see it coming, and suddenly Keith was right in front of him before the explosion. The were blasted in different directions, but luckily the Pidge had shut the sentries down right after they were hit. Lance sucked in a quick breath before groaning in pain and jumping up. His eyes wouldn’t concentrate and he was swaying on his feet, but in his swimming vision he located the only red on the planet, Keith’s armor.

 

“Keith,” Lance mumbled as we walked over. His vision cleared with each step, and when he reached Keith and his eyes adjusted completely. The sight before him was one he had only seen before in his darkest nightmares: Keith’s face covered in blood, his arm bent at an unnatural angle, and no sign of movement.

 

“Keith, no!” Lance screamed as he knelt down and grabbed at his shoulders. The scene before him wracked a sob from his throat  

 

_This is all my fault._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, he doesn't die!
> 
> Find me on tumblr @linkisdumb or @noolss


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets introspective when he can't concentrate on the present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and feedback are always appreciated!

When looking back on this moment, Keith knew that every decision in his life had brought him here. Every reckless decision, every annoyed outburst, every hug and pat on the back seemed to have shoved him in the direction to sacrifice himself for Lance. He didn’t see the projectile headed for Lance, but he felt it. Being part Galra had some advantages, such as being able to sense quintessence.

 

There wasn’t much of a choice in his mind and it wasn’t a reckless decision. He jumped in front of Lance to stop the explosive from hitting him, and he would have done it again. Keith wasn’t stupid, nor was he in denial any longer. He had figured out his feelings for Lance quite a while ago and wasn’t afraid to show his affection. He was never quite sure if Lance was reading it in the way he intended, but that didn’t stop him from cuddling with Lance on the couch or resting his feet in Lance’ lap while taking a break from training.

 

The day Keith realized exactly what his feelings were, was a typical day on the castleship. They had all eaten together before having an hour before training officially began. Lance had challenged Keith to a goo eating contest by simply smiling in this direction. Keith was already on his second bowl and didn’t feel like he could quickly eat it, but went along with the silent challenge anyway. When Lance one he let out a loud whoop and threw his hands in the air. His head tilted back while he sported a face cracking grin. Keith’s heart skipped a beat as he noticed the dimples in Lance’s cheeks dance with his laughter.

 

He quickly looked away and willed his heart to calm down before getting up to clean his bowl. When he glanced back at the table from the sink he saw Lance in a conversation with Hunk, dimples still proudly on display.

 

 _Shit_ , he thought to himself, _I would do anything to keep him always smiling._

 

Keith headed to his room before training and sat on his bed for a moment before flopping onto his back and resting his arm over his face. He let out a groan as his thoughts continued to swirl in his mind, strands of emotions and fragments of Lance filtered through creating one large jumble. After a while he sat up and headed to the bathroom to splash his face with water to regain some semblance of control before training. He caught his own gaze in the mirror and decided the best thing to do would be to confront this head on.

 

Without thinking, the words, “I like Lance McClain,” stumbled out of his mouth and into the open air. _And I would do anything to keep him safe_ was left unsaid, but reverberated through his bones.

 

That was the moment that Keith would recall when asked why he jumped in front of Lance. He would pick that exact moment of staring at himself in the mirror and making a decision for himself.

 

The decision had been made that fateful day months ago, and there was no way Keith was going to sit around and not act on it. He jumped in front of the projectile and slashed it away with his sword but he only had a moment of peace before it exploded in his face. He hadn’t hit the explosive away, but rather sent it flying straight into his own body.

 

The last thing he saw was a blinding light before everything went dark. Initially he wasn’t sure if he was unconscious, but he decided was in too much pain to not be awake. His ears were ringing and he couldn’t move. Or maybe he was moving, but he couldn’t see or feel his limbs. The pain in his chest seemed to be emanating from his lungs and rebound at every point in his body.

 

_I’ve felt this before._

 

It wasn’t the injury causing his breathing difficulties, but the early stages of a panic attack taking place.

 

_Calm down. Breathe in for 8, hold for 3, out for 8. In- 1, 2, 3_

 

His efforts were in vain, however. His breathing was not getting better and instead he started muttering, “I can’t see, I can’t hear, I can’t see, I can’t hear, I can-”

 

He felt hands grab his shoulders, and tried to increase the volume of his mutterings. It was hard to tell by just feeling alone how loud he was being, but there was a response from the person grabbing at him. The wrapped their arms more securely around him. Suddenly, his brain wasn’t so worried about breathing anymore and became concerned with person touching him. His memories of the moments before weren’t immediately coming to the surface so he attempted to squirm away.

 

The person just squeezed their arms tighter around Keith before dislodging one and gripping Keith’s own hand tightly. Keith’s body continued to seize and fight it’s way away from the contact. The person yanked off Keith’s glove with little finesse and Keith realized they also weren’t wearing a glove. They pushed Keith’s hand onto their wrist, past a layer of hard material and under what felt like thick spandex.

 

 _It’s paladin armor,_ Keith’s brain happily supplied, _It’s one of my friends._ His mind was still a mess and he couldn’t remember how he got into this state- no vision or hearing, laying on a hard ground in agony. He felt along the wrist of one of his teammates until he felt a thin strip of woven fabric, a feeling he knew all too well.

 

_Lance!_

 

Months ago while on a supply run, he and Lance had walked around a market looking for the items on the list Coran had given them. They were a bit lost, and ran into a strange alien who gave them each their own bracelet and said they were “calling to them.” Lance and Keith had laughed it off at the time, but neither of them took the bracelets off. Lance’s bracelet was Blue and seemed to changed color the more you look at it, the way a glistening ocean would. Keith’s bracelet reminded him of a campfire, blazing in hues of orange and red. It moved with the impatience of fire waiting to devour its next source of fuel but never burned out.

 

He felt Lance’s bracelet for a moment longer then clamped down on his hand. He wasn’t sure if any of his words were actually leaving his mouth, but his brain was letting out a strangled line of “Lance, I can’t see, Lance, I can’t hear you, I feel you, help, Lanc-”

 

Before he could dwell too long on what was coming out of his mouth, Lance scooped him up into his arms. His head fell against Lance’s shoulder where he felt part of his helmet clunk against Lance’s armor. The rest of Keith’s body felt numb to the sensation, which he was grateful for as Lance began to walk. He could feel his head being jostled against Lance’s shoulder. He wasn’t sure how long Lance had been carrying him. Logically he knew it was probably only minutes, but it felt like days on end.

 

Without two of his major senses, Keith felt very out of whack and could barely tell what was happening. He was too out of sorts to put brain power towards thinking critically and instead basing all his knowledge of this situation on things he knew were happening. He knew Lance was carrying him, and he knew he felt safe in Lance’s arms.

 

After a while, he started to make out sound that weren’t just a ringing sound. He could hear his own breathing at first and after a moment he could hear the rumble of Lance’s voice. He couldn’t decipher what he was saying yet, but it gave Keith something to concentrate on. He could catch words here and there like, “coming... Blue... hurt... hurry...”

 

Lance jostled Keith in his arms for a moment and suddenly they were on a steep incline instead of the flat ground the had been traveling on. Keith’s brain to mouth filter was shot and he heard himself say “s’happenin?”

 

He felt Lance stiffen in response to his words before he spoke, “You can hear me?” Keith nodded his head not having the energy to speak again.

 

“We just got to Blue. She’s headed back to the ship now. You better hold on a little longer, samurai.” Keith hummed in response as he sunk more into Lance. He loved it when Lance called him samurai. He couldn’t remember when it started, but it made his insides feel fuzzy every time the term slipped through Lance’s lips.

 

Lance took a seat somewhere in the lion, adjusting Keith so he was in between Lance’s legs and leaning against his chest. He felt Lance’s chest rise and fall with every breath and could hear each exhale. It was too quiet; he could feel the panic settling back in. Lance was the loudest one on the ship, he was always making some sort of sound.

 

Keith often observed Lance’s hands as he fidgeted. He would soak in the small noises Lance created with his fingers as tapped them against his thighs, the table, or any surface nearby. Keith could even recall one time Lance used Keith’s foot while it was in his lap. He had felt the heat sinking through his sock with every small touch and stayed perfectly still to not ruin the moment. It had been very hard for him to get to sleep that night.

 

But now Lance was the one holding himself perfectly still. His arms were balanced around Keith’s waist, holding him tightly but not crushing him. Keith decided he needed some sound, and blindly groped for Lance’s hand. He fumbled around until he felt the end of Lance’s armor and slowly lifted his hand away from his stomach. Keith had grabbed Lance’s left hand in his own, which wasn’t conducive to hand holding. He shifted slightly as he brought right hand to Lance’s left and intertwined their fingers.

 

He felt more than heard Lance’s quick intake of breath at the contact and then slouched back against him. It was quiet for a moment before Lance started rubbing his thumb over Keith’s knuckles. Keith would have let out a sigh but his breath was still caught in his throat. He needed something more than just this, he needed something to concentrate on.

 

“S’Pidge here?” he asked, words slurring together as he tried to force them out.

 

“No,” Lance replied softly, “She left when we got in and was waiting for Hunk to get her. She wanted to grab a sentry to dissect when she got back to the castle.”

 

It seemed to Keith Lance was done talking and he had missed most of what he said after “No.” He wouldn’t be able to concentrate on staying awake if Lance was only talking, he needed more. He needed something to soothe the panic that seeped from his mind and clutched at his chest. A thought drifted past him in the form of a melody, a memory. It was a compilation of Lance’s greatest hits throughout their time on the castleship.

 

The specific memory his brain landed on was one that Keith loved to think back on when he had trouble falling asleep. All of the paladins had been in the common room, but after a while Keith and Lance were the only two left. Keith was reading a book he had borrowed from Pidge and Lance was resting his head against the back of the couch. Their legs were intertwined and every once in a while Lance would move his to get Keith to look up at him. Eventually Lance broke the silence.

 

“Do you ever miss it?” he asked in a small voice. Keith had thought about this question before. Surely he didn’t miss Earth as much as Lance, Pidge, or Hunk did, but he still missed some things about Earth.

 

“I miss music,” it what he settled on telling Lance. There was only so much emotional vulnerability he could go through in one night and music didn’t make him feel like he was letting Lance into a big part of himself.

 

“Yeah me too,” he responded, silent for a moment. “What music do you even like? With your attire I’d guess you’re into all that emo shit but you’re from Texas so I guess I can’t assume.”

 

“I only had a radio growing up so I got what I could. Sometimes it would pick up signal from country stations but other times it would pick up pop music. I wasn’t ever too picky so I took what I could get.”

 

Lance hummed in agreement absentmindedly shuffling until Keith’s feet were in his lap. “I still bet you’d like all that emo music tho, it seems like the message would really stick with your loner vibe.”

 

“I’m not much of a loner anymore.”

 

Lance chuckled, “No, I guess you’re not.” It was silent once again for a while. Keith had picked up his book again and resumed reading. He had only gotten a page more when Lance spoke again.

 

“I could show you some songs, if you want.”

 

“How could you do that, Pidge won’t let you borrow her iPod anymore,” Keith replied, rolling his eyes at the thought.

 

“I could sing to you,” Lance said, puffing out his chest. Keith laughed at that, assuming Lance was joking and had just forgotten Pidge had banned him from using her iPod after he almost dropped it in the bathtub.

 

“I happen to be an excellent singer, thank you very much!”

 

“You were serious?” Keith questioned, not quite believing Lance’s sincerity.

 

“Yeah, dude,” he replied, barely above a whisper.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Really?” Lance said, looking up at Keith again. His small smile blinded Keith and transferred to Keith’s face as he spoke again.

 

“Show me what you’ve got.”

 

“Okay well, I don’t have my guitar with me up here, but I can sing one of my sister’s favorite songs. She’s a lot like you, y’know, she likes to wear all black and is angsty and listens to emo music all the time. We used to sing together, I would play and do harmonies as she sang...” Lance trailed off as he got caught in his memories. His eyes unfocused as he lost concentration.

 

“What was her favorite to sing?” Keith asked, pushing his toes into Lance’s leg to get his attention.

 

“She loved this one song called ‘Even if it Kills Me.’ I’m still not sure why, but she would always request I play it when we sang together.”

 

“Okay, sing that one.”

 

Lance glanced up shyly but jumped right into singing, “I’ve got a lot of things to do tonight...” Keith couldn’t concentrate on the lyrics and instead let the melody wash over him. Lance’s voice soothed Keith as he shut his eyes and soaked it all in.

 

Soon enough the song ended with Lance quietly singing, “and I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it kills me.” The last note hung in the air for a while before Keith broke the silence.

 

“You were right.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“That was an emo song.”

 

Lance shoved his feet away for a moment but caught them before they got too far off of his lap.

 

“Yeah, but you liked it.”

 

This was a memory Keith relied on up in space. It was too often his life was filled with silence, but just by closing his eyes Keith could imagine Lance was right next to him singing. But now, Lance was next to him and not singing.

 

“Will you sing t’me?” Keith asked, taking short shallow breaths in between each word.

 

Lance hesitated for only a second before beginning a song. Just like before, Keith couldn’t concentrate on the lyrics, but the pacing of the song helped Keith keep track of his breathing. He was calming down and everything seemed to be still for a moment before he jolted almost out of Lance’s lap.

 

Suddenly there was a flurry of sound around him and he felt hands lifting him away from Lance. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he knew the familiar baritone rumble of Shiro’s voice. He relaxed in Shiro’s arms as he ran him to the medbay. Once there, he was laid on a table and deft hands began taking off his armor plating. His ears picked out lance’s voice again, and he felt a hand grip his tightly as Shiro finished taking off his armor.

 

Carefully, Lance’s hand moved to sit him up to unzip his suit. After the zipper down the back was pulled, Lance gently pulled the suit down as well. Once it moved past his abdomen, a cool rush released in his stomach. He could feel liquid trickling farther down onto the table. Lance cried out Shiro’s name and suddenly there were two pairs of hands stripping off his suit. Quickly but gently, he was lifted into the white medbay suit and then shuffled over to a pod.

 

“Lance,” he gasped as he was being propped up against the pod inside. He struggled against the backrest in the pod and forced his way back out

 

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Lance breathed into his ear from the side as he caught him in his arms.

 

“Promise?”

 

“Yeah, I promise Keith. I’ll be here.”

 

Content with his response, Keith allowed them to lift him back up to rest in the pod. He felt the coolness of the pod take over as he stayed still. His last thought before unconsciousness was of Lance singing, “I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it kills me.”

 

_I’m glad he’s safe. I’ll keep him safe even if it kills me._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe this is longer than the first chapter, I definitely didn't plan that! The story is no where close to being done, I wonder how long it will be in the end?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance patiently waits for Keith to be released. Well, not so patiently.

It had been 2 weeks since they put Keith into the pod, and he was almost ready to come out. Lance had been going insane, wanting to make sure Keith was okay as well as take care of the rest of the crew. He hopped between helping Coran clean, helping Hunk cook, training with Shiro, keeping Pidge company, and doing skincare with Allura. He spent the rest of his time sitting outside of Keith’s pod, but only when no one was around.

 

The moments before they put Keith in the pod, all of Lance’s feelings finally caught up to him. Singing for Keith and cradling him in his arms moments before what could have been his death took a toll on Lance. When Keith asked him to sing, he hadn’t hesitated. 

 

He had sung for Keith before, but the implications were different this time. Before, he had just been showing off for Keith, wanting him to see how great of a singer he was. He had wanted to introduce Keith to new music while also holding all of his attention. However, this time he had been fulfilling what could have been Keith’s dying wish. 

 

_ Why did he ask me to sing for him? Why did he jump in front of me? When is he going to  _ **_wake up?_ **

 

Lance had been caught in the medbay soon after he and Shiro had successfully dressed and stuffed Keith into a pod.  He had sat down and refused to move, most of it due to exhaustion but he justified it through wanting to be by Keith. When Coran walked in he avoided Lance’s gaze as he clicked away on the pod. 

 

“How’s he doing?” Lance asked, peering up at Coran from his spot on the floor.

 

“He’s still not stable,” Coran replied, “but at the moment, I’m more concerned about you, my boy.”

 

“Pshh, me? I’m fine. Why would you be worried about me?”

 

Coran finally returned Lance’s gaze and gave him a flat look, “Has anyone checked on your injuries?”

 

Lance was thinking of something to say and had just opened his mouth to respond when Coran cut him off and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll take your silence as a no. Come sit on the table so I can check you out.” 

 

“I’m fine, Coran,” Lance said, as he shrugged off Coran’s hand. 

 

“I’m sure you are, just help me put my mind to rest.”

 

“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Just give me a sec.” Lance attempted to stand and made it about halfway into an unprofitable position before he was doubled over in pain. His lungs were burning and it was almost like he had the wind knocked out of him. Coran grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him and then helped him hobble over to the table.

 

Lance sat as still as he could while Coran took off the platelets of his armor and began doing a basic exam. First, he poked and prodded Lance with his fingers, finding all the sore spots. Then he pulled out his hand-held device which was apparently the Altean equivalent of an x-ray machine. He scanned Lance’s body and muttered to himself before placing the machine down. 

 

“You need to be put in a pod. You have two broken ribs and a fracture in your left arm as well as a small fracture in the bone by your shoulder, in your neck region. What’s that called again?” Coran demonstrated by gesturing towards his collar.

 

“My collarbone?”

 

“Yes, that’s it! A small, almost miniscule fracture in your collarbone.”

 

“But I’ll be fine without a pod, right?”

 

“Did you not hear me say ‘You need to be put in a pod’? Did I only think that and not say it outloud?” Coran questioned, stroking his mustache as gazed off in the distance, lost in thought.

 

“No you did,” Lance responded, taking a shaky breath, “I would just prefer not to be stuffed in a pod at this moment.”

 

Coran gave him a pitiful look and said, “I know your previous experiences with the pod were, well, not all that fun. But they’re in full working order now, you will be perfectly fine in several quintants!” 

 

“But I’m fine now!” Lance shouted as he raised his arms in frustration which left him gasping again. He clutched at his side and hunched over, taking shallow breaths before regaining a regular breathing pattern. 

 

“It is very obvious you are not fine, my boy. Care to share what’s really holding you back?”

 

Lance’s gaze subconsciously flitted over to Keith’s pod. He lingered there for a moment before looking at Coran. “I’ve dealt with broken ribs and bones before. Humans can heal easily from this sort of injury, I  _ will _ be fine healing on my own.” 

 

Coran followed where he had been looking, eyes landing on Keith’s pod. “I’m sure he will be fine and I’m also sure he’d want you to be fine as well.”

 

“And I will be! I’ll just be healing at a normal pace.”

 

As soon as Lance was done speaking, Allura’s voice sounded over the speaker, “We are all accounted for, I am wormholing away now.” Lance felt the ship rock forward, or at least rock into motion, and stood up from the table. 

 

“I’m going to go change,” he muttered as he left the room. He could faintly hear Coran as he called out but he was moving fast enough that it was just muffled by the door. 

 

Ever since then, anytime one of the others found him in the medbay, the would insist on checking him out and then attempt to force him into a pod. He found it was easier to distract them with his help and sneak away later so they wouldn’t come looking for him. 

 

After a week of being in the pod, Keith’s vital signs had finally settled as he stabilized. Lance had been the only one in the medbay at the time, it being the middle of the night and all, when he heard the soft tingle of the pod notifying of the stabilization. As per usual, Lance sat facing the pod from several feet away on a mattress they had dragged in there long ago. There was a lot of extra mattresses in the castle and Lance wasn’t the only one prone to waiting outside of a pod while someone was injured. 

 

He had been half asleep when the noise reverberated through the empty room. His eyes shot open as he jumped to his feet and raced to the pod. Instead of the red colors that the screen normally sported, there was a soft blue color emanating from it. Lance’s eyes adjusted and he saw that Keith’s heartbeat was at a normal pace with no other issues. Lance moved a hand to his face as he caught the tears now streaming from his eyes. 

 

Lance wasn’t sure what to do next, but his feet took him where he needed to go. It wasn’t until he was knocking on Hunk’s door that he realized it was the space equivalent of 3am and that he was waking up the person who usually cooked them all breakfast. But it was too late and when Hunk opened his door he saw a tear-stained and smiling Lance standing with his fist still raised. 

 

To Lance, it was subconscious to go to Hunk for comfort. Hunk had been his best friend for years before the whole Voltron mess, and was his emotional rock throughout everything. Hunk had been there for Lance’s first anxious breakdown at the garrison. He had held Lance when he cried about his grandmother’s passing. He had been the first one to catch onto Lance’s depression that stemmed from feeling like an inadequate paladin. He was the obvious choice for Lance’s subconscious to drag him to. 

 

When Hunk leveled him with a questioning look, Lance burst into tears all over again. It wasn’t the ugly, crazy crying Hunk had experienced before, but rather silent tears streaming down Lance’s face. 

 

Lance opened his mouth to say something but after a moment of no response, Hunk pulled him into a hug. He slowly wrapped his arms back around Hunk and sat for a moment before he found his voice. 

 

“Keith stabilized,” he muttered into Hunk’s shirt. 

 

“Okay,” Hunk responded, “why don’t you go to sleep and we can tell Coran in the morning.”

 

“Yeah,” Lance said drawing back, “that’s a good plan. I’m supposed to be the strategist here, you shouldn’t be the one throwing around good ideas.” He chuckled as he said it. Hunk had been around to hear all about Lance’s insecurities, he would notice when Lance was poking fun at them. They weren't s very prevalent issue anymore, so Lance was banking on Hunk playing along. 

 

“Exactly, Lance. We need you in top shape, can’t have you all sleep deprived.”

 

“Thanks, Hunk,” Lance said, finally pulling completely away from Hunk and heading to his room. 

 

It had been a week since then, and Lance no longer felt the need to be at Keith’s pod every waking moment. Before, Lance was just spending time with the others so they wouldn’t worry about him. Now, he was back to spending time with them because he was enjoying it. He still had a lot of difficulty sleeping, but tonight he had a reason not to. Tonight was the night they were taking Keith out of the pod. 

 

Coran had already begun a winding explanation of Keith’s recovery in the pod, only to end with, “but his eyes still won’t be fully healed.”

 

Lance’s excitement and joy suddenly drained out of his body, “What do you mean he won’t be able to see? He’s a pilot, he needs his sight to fly! How can-” 

 

“Lance, just let Coran finish and stop worrying about your boyfriend, he’s going to be fine!” Pidge huffed, cutting Lance off before he got too worked up. 

 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Lance grumbled as he returned his attention to Coran. 

 

“As I was saying, his vision will be shut off while his body continues to heal. The pod could not heal his eyes at a faster pace than normal human healing, so we will be taking him out instead. But like I said, I used the pod to shut off the ocular pathways in his brain so he won’t be trying to use his eyes while he’s healing. It should only take about 10 quintants for his eyes to fully heal. Until then, we’ll have to keep his eyes bandaged so nothing can get at them.”

 

“How do we do that when he’s still in the pod?” Lance asked, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot and looking around at the other paladins. 

 

“Simple,” Coran continued as he puttered around the supply closet, “you’ll sedate him with this, and then we’ll wrap his eyes while he’s unconscious.” He made his way out into the infirmary and  handed Lance a small, clear box. Inside the box was a syringe full of purple liquid that seemed to glitter as it caught the light. 

 

“It’ll be easier to deal with an unconscious patient than a confused and unruly one,” Coran continued, returning to the pod to check vitals again. 

 

“Are you sure this is safe?” Lance asked, holding up the box to his face and peering at the liquid. 

 

“That’s the stuff you’ve used on me before,” Pidge butt in, “when you had to reset my arm before I went into the pod.” Lance remembers that mission very clearly. It wasn’t even a battle, but rather a simple diplomatic mission. Pidge had been doing some scouting when she fell and broke her arm. All in all, the break wasn’t too bad, but they had to set it before putting her in the pod. Coran and suggested the knock her out so she didn’t have to experience the pain and Pidge was all over that idea.

 

“Number 5 is right,” Coran said, “This is a less concentrated version of the serum the pod uses to keep you in stasis. This will just knock you out for a vargra or two instead of keeping you asleep for 10,000 years.”

 

Lance and Pidge shared a look, but still weren’t sure how to react. It was still awkward when Coran made jokes about being frozen, just like it was awkward when Shiro made jokes about his time with the Galra. No one was sure how to react.

 

It was silent for a moment, just the three of them waiting for the pod to release Keith. Everyone else was asleep, not feeling like the needed to be there when Keith woke up. They had all been in the pods numerous times and the novelty of waiting around and all being there when someone awoke had worn off. Well, for everyone but Lance, apparently.

 

After several minutes of silence, Coran finally said, “Alright, prepare the serum, he should be released in a couple of ticks.”

 

Lance took the serum out of its box and set the set the box on the table by one of the beds. 

 

“Get ready to catch him,” Coran said as the pod slid open and Keith began to fall out. Lance immediately wrapped an arm around him and positioned Keith’s left arm over his shoulder. Pidge was on Keith’s other side doing the same thing. 

 

“Help me slide him to the floor,” Lance offered as he heard Pidge grunting under Keith’s weight. Together they kneeled until Keith was leaning against Lance’s side. 

 

Once he was there he was awake enough to take stock of his surroundings and speak. 

 

“Lance,” muttered Keith. 

 

“Hey bud,” Lance began, running his fingers through Keith’s hair, “I’m here.” At this Pidge coughed not so subtlety so Lance continued, “Pidge is here too.”

 

Keith attempted to turn towards Pidge as he said, “Pidge,” a little more strongly. Pidge reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. 

 

“Why can’t I see? What’s wrong with me?” Keith said as his breath began to become more labored. As he reached for his face, Pidge caught his hands before they could touch his still healing eyes. 

 

“Lance, the serum!” Pidge orders, struggling to keep Keith’s hands away from his face. 

 

“Keith you’re going to be fine, trust me,” Lance said as he stuck the needle into Keith’s arm. It was little difficult to get it through the suit, but as soon as he hit the plunger, Keith began to relax against him. 

 

“Let’s get him on the bed,” Coran said, coming up from behind them and getting an arm under his shoulder. Lance resumed the position he had taken before they had sunk to the floor and stood up with Coran.

 

“Number 5, grab his feet.” Pidge grabbed Keith’s feet per Coran’s request and together they all hobbled over to the bed. Once they successfully deposited him on top, Pidge slumped to the floor and sat with her back against the leg. 

 

“What can I help with, Coran?” Lance asked, needed to occupy his hands so his emotions wouldn’t catch up to him. 

 

“You, my boy, can go grab me a package of dressing for the wound,” Coran said as he began wiping Keith’s face off with the space equivalent of an antiseptic wipe. Lance headed to the medical supply closet and grabbed a package of what appeared to be gauze. He was guessing purely on appearance since he couldn’t read altean and wasn’t exactly sure what Coran had been looking for. It seemed to be the correct item for the job because Coran sent him a small, “Thank you, my boy,” when he handed it to him. 

 

Once Coran had finished securing the bandage, he bent down and jostled Pidge awake, “Come on, number 5, let’s get you off to bed.” Pidge picked herself off the floor and headed for the exit with Coran. 

 

“Night, Coran,” Lance called as they started to walk off. 

 

“You get to sleep to my boy, you have a long day tomorrow. If he wakes up, help him to his room to get some rest as well.” With that, the door shut behind them, leaving only Lance and an unconscious Keith. It wasn’t all that different from the previous nights except this time, he could hold Keith’s hand. It’s not like anyone was around to see it anyway. 

 

Lance sat in silence by Keith’s bed and played with his hand. It hadn’t felt like much time at all when Keith started to wake up. He began stirring and Lance held his breath until he heard Keith mutter, “s’happenin?”

 

At that moment, Lance thanked every god he believed in as he responded, “It’s good to see you awake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me, to chapters in 1 week! Wild!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is out of the pod, but ready to go back to sleep for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have a mess of 4k unbeta'd (and unrevised) words. I finished this chap at 1am and was pushing to publish tonight so here I am. There is some sensitive content in this chapter so watch out for: panic attacks, sleep paralysis, canon typical violence, and death. For a more detailed understanding of the chapter, check the end notes!
> 
> Comments and feedback are always appreciated!

Keith’s first conscious thoughts were no more than static fuzz in his brain. This wasn’t his first time being in the pod, and every time was the same, so why was this time different? Typically, after the pod opens and releases him, he’s thrown into consciousness. It always takes a couple of seconds to be completely aware of his surroundings, but for the most part it’s immediate.

 

However, as he was thinking something was off, it became obvious to him that the situation was different. He was lying in a bed and could hear the soft whirrs of the caste around him. As he regained stock of his body, the soreness started to settle in. His arm hurt the most, but there was also a general achiness throughout the rest of his body. Finally, he felt the hand gently stroking his.

 

The thumb of whoever was touching him stroked over his knuckles then between his fingers before repeating the motion again. He basked in the attention for 30 seconds before formal reasoning caught up to instinct. He twitched his hand and moved his body a bit before asking, “s’happenin?”

 

He heard a muffled response from somewhere but again his brain wouldn’t catch up. He moved his hand not being held to rub at his face, but he was stopped.

 

“What? Why?” he mumbled again. This time his brain caught up to the response his ears heard.

 

“Don’t touch your face, your eyes are healing.” Keith recognized that voice. Usually it was heard saying a snarky remark, not the soothing tone it was taking on.

 

_Lance._

 

Keith shot up in bed and was quickly taken over by a wave of nausea. He slumped back over and felt Lance’s hands move from holding back Keith's hands, to resting on his head and shoulder.

 

“Hey, Keith, take it easy, shh, shh, you’re okay.” It wasn’t until he heard Lance shushing him that he realized he had been making small pained noises. He was sure if he had his vision, it would have blacked out.

 

“Lance. What happened?” Keith could only recall vague memories at the moment.He remembers falling out of the pod and being calmed by Lance. He remembers being in Blue and Lance singing to him. He remembers... _an explosion?_

 

“You jumped in front of me and deflected an explosion right into your face,” Lance said- Keith could hear the grimace in his voice. He couldn’t see but his brain provided an image of Lance, his eyebrows knit together with a soft smile.

 

_How often have I been looking at Lance that my brain can reconstruct him from memory._

 

Keith realized it had been about 10 seconds since Lance spoke and he had yet to respond. He decided to lighten the mood, “I guess that’s why I can’t see.” He let out a small chuckle, but it seemed Lance didn’t think it was too funny.

 

“You’re eyes just need about two weeks to heal. Maybe less? I can’t remember what Coran said.”

 

“So I’m not blind?” happiness crept through Keith’s tone. Ever since the Blue lion he had slowly been coming to terms with the possibility of being permanently blind. It would certainly make being a paladin 1000 times more difficult, but Keith was dedicated to saving the universe.

 

“No, you’re not,” Lance responded, stroking his hand through Keith’s hair. Keith turned his head into Lance’s hand and sighed happily. “And I know Pidge is working on some fancy goggles for you to be able to use while your sight is out so you won’t even be completely blind while you’re healing.

 

Keith’s heart warmed at that. All of the Paladins showed their love in different ways. Lance was one to show his affection through attention. He would seek out the other paladins and spend time with them when he wanted to help them. Shiro would train and pull the space dad role by striking up heart to hearts in the downtime between levels. Hunk would cook someone’s favorite meal and help them with lion maintenance. Allura would spend time with you doing whatever you’d like while Coran would ask stories about their pasts. Pidge showed her affection through crafting. She was like a child who would make homemade glitter cards that say “I Luv U” but instead would hand you fully functional technology.

 

She had been working on the goggles since Coran had confided in her what would be happening once Keith was out of the pod. (He hadn’t told Lance the plan until it was time to eject Keith because he knows how Lance would have reacted).

 

“So, where are we right now?”  Keith asked, taking a deep sniff and attempting to figure out where he was through his olfactory senses. It was unsuccessful, the whole castle smelled the same to Keith except for Lance’s room, and he wasn’t sure if it really smelt different or if he convinced himself it did.

 

“Right now, we’re in the med wing. Once you feel like you can move without passing out, I can take you back to your room.” Keith thought about how he was feeling and how long it might take for him to feel better and decided even if it was a pain to get there, he would feel a lot better in his own bed.

 

“It’ll probably be a pain in the ass but could you help me to my room? I don’t want to spend anymore time here.” Keith was hoping Lance understood the underlying message. None of them liked staying in the med wing if they didn’t need to. It was a sad, cavernous room that seemed much too large for the intimacy that usually took place when one of the paladins was injured.

 

“Yeah dude, of course. Let’s get you up and to your room,” Lance said, hopping to his feet and helping Keith sit up. He placed his hand on Keith’s lower back and suddenly Keith’s stomach had a completely different feeling. Instead of nausea, he felt butterflies flitting around.

 

_Calm down, he’s just helping you to your room._

 

With a small struggle, Lance got Keith to his feet. Keith had his arm slung over Lance’s shoulders with most of his weight resting on him. They slowly shuffled towards the door and after a second, Keith’s head was already feeling clearer.

 

His stride grew stronger with each step, but he was still having balance issues. It didn’t help that Lance was an inch or two taller than Keith, his arm was extending slightly higher than normal and was at an weird angle. Keith decided to bite the bullet of awkwardness and slither his arm around Lance’s waist instead. He slid his arm off of Lance’s shoulder and felt Lance tense up for a moment then readjust his grip as Keith’s arm fell into place.

 

Lance stopped for a moment and Keith heard the medbay door whir open. The rest of the way to Keith’s room was a slow process and seemed to take forever. About halfway through, Keith could feel himself starting to fall asleep. He leaned heavily on Lance for a moment as his head nodded forward.

 

“Woah! Keith, are you okay?”

 

“Mmm’sleepy,” he muttered, leaning more heavily against Lance  

 

“Okay, well just hold on bud, we’ll be there soon.”

 

Keith sunk more into Lance’s side as they walked. They tripped several times which lead to Lance holding Keith up with a hand on his chest as well as the arm thrown around his shoulders. Finally, they arrived at Keith’s room. Lance slapped his hand on the panel causing the door to open. There was an awkward moment where they tried to shuffle through the room side by side, but after a couple of moments Lance turned them sideways to fit.

 

Lance set Keith down on his bed, and puttered around the room for a moment. Keith had been sitting up on his bed for all of 3 seconds before he slowly sunk down to a laying position. He went in and out of consciousness for a minute but was completely woken up by Lance returning and shaking his shoulder.

 

“Hey, don’t fall asleep yet. Let’s get you out of this suit first.”

 

“Hmm? M’kay.” Lance helped him sit up again and unzipped the suit from the back. Keith was sure he was blushing, but was counting on his room being cast in low light due to the time of night. Lance carefully peeled of the top half of the suit and helped him pull a t-shirt on. He moved his hands to pull the suit down the rest of the way but Keith stopped him.

 

“Uhhh,” Keith eloquently responded. He couldn’t think of a way to phrase what he wanted to say without coming off like he didn’t trust lance. But as always, Lance surprised him by understanding his fears exactly.

 

“Hey, it’s okay. You still have your paladin armor shorts on underneath the pod suit. We were in too much of a hurry to completely strip and clean you before, uhh, getting you into the pod.” Keith could hear the pain in Lance’s voice as he said that. The soft joking lilt of his voice couldn’t mask the unease present in the break of his sentence. Lance finished pulling off the suit a coughed a little.

 

“Dude, no offense but you reek.”

 

“Well I was in a pod for- actually I don’t know how long I was in a pod for,” Keith responded. He doesn’t think Lance had mentioned it at all, and he was dreading the answer. Lance was silent as he finished his work. He pulled up Keith’s pajama pants and sat on the bed next to him.

 

Finally, he spoke in a whisper, “Two weeks, you were out for two weeks.”

 

 _Two weeks? I know it was bad but I didn’t think it was that bad._  He wasn’t sure what to say. _I’m not about to apologize for saving his life._ He sat there for a moment thinking of how to respond, but his body decided for him. He let out a large yawn and covered his hand.

 

“You should get to sleep. We’ll see if we can get you into the shower in the morning,” Lance said as he stood up. He rested his hand on Keith’s shoulder as he went to leave.

 

“Lance, thank you, for everything.” Keith grabbed Lance’s hand off of his shoulder as he spoke.

 

Lance squeezed Keith’s hand as he spoke. “Of course, we’re a team.”

 

Keith knew what a loaded phrase that was for Lance. In the beginning, Lance was adamant that he and Keith were rivals and wouldn’t even fathom working together. It was a testament to how far they’d come for Lance to so casually say they were a team. It was reminiscent of their first ‘bonding moment’ so long ago. For so long, Keith dreamed that Lance would say that phrase again.

 

“You and me, sharpshooter,” Keith responded, feeling a smile creep onto his face.

 

“You got is, samurai. Now, get some sleep. Come get me if you need anything” With that, Lance left the room, letting the door slide shut behind him. Keith felt himself starting to drift off to sleep from the sitting position he was in and decided it would be smarter to lay down. He pulled the covers over himself and adjusted his pillow under his head. It was only seconds before sleep came over him.

 

Keith wasn’t usually a dreamer, not like the others. He knew about Shiro’s PTSD and the nightmares he had, the whole crew had witnessed those at one time or another. He knew that Pidge rarely slept, but had the weirdest dreams off all of them and would happily retell them at breakfast. He knew most of Lance’s dreams about earth and his family. At first, he had known nothing, but after a night of discussion, the floodgates had been opened.

 

One night, the two of them had found themselves alone on the bridge after a debriefing. The rest of the paladins had left in a hurry, and Keith had stayed behind to keep Lance company. Usually, they talked about unimportant things since the rest of their lives the fate of the universe rested on their shoulders. But that night was different.

 

Lance had asked Allura for the umpteenth time to have a break on earth. They had gotten through the battle that day without any major injuries, but Lance had been facing certain death had it not been for Hunk ramming a Galra laser out of alignment. Needless to say, it shook Lance up. It wasn’t even one of the times that he was intentionally sacrificing himself, he was just caught in a rough battle where there were too many variables to keep track of.

 

Lance asked Allura about visiting earth after the main part of the briefing ended. The had all been gathered around just discussing what to do with the rest of their day/night when Allura had snapped at Lance. No one else, save Keith, was paying attention to their conversation until Allura started yelling.

 

“Lance! I do not want to hear of this anymore. We have discussed this at length and I do not think now is an appropriate time to take a vacation.”

 

“Princess, you know I’m not asking for a vacation. It’s just a much needed break to see our home planet and families before we face down another large threat!”

 

“As I said, it would be unwise to return to earth now. It is not up for debate, so stop bringing it up.”

 

Keith saw the fire in Lance’s eyes as well as the sadness in his heart. He knew what was coming next, he had been on the tail end of Lance’s whirlwind emotions in the past. It still didn’t make it any easier to swallow when Lance responded.

 

“If Altea was still around, you know you would feel the same way I do. Don’t try to make me feel bad for wanting to see my family and planet again. If I recall, you almost got the entire castleship destroyed in a fiery blaze for the very same thought.” There was a gasp from Allura at that memory, but Lance continued, “You act so high and mighty when it comes to earth, but you’re exactly the same about Altea!”

 

Allura’s glare would have made weaker men faint, but Lance was past the point of reasoning. She stalked out of the room in a huff and was closely followed by Coran as he shouted, “Princess, wait!”

 

Keith saw Shiro give Lance a disapproving look before saying, “I’ll go check on them.” As he exited, Pidge and Hunk shared a look before looking at Keith. Keith knew them well enough to know that what they were asking ‘you got this?’ so he gave a quick nod prompting them to leave. Lance had stalked over to sit on the edge of the platform and rested his head in his hands. He started pulling at his hair and let out a frustrated growl.

 

Keith made his way over to Lance and sat down next to him. He wasn’t sure what would set Lane off, so he didn’t dare touch them. They sat in silence for several minutes and slowly shifted towards each other as if drawn in by magnets. Eventually, Lance released the grip in his hair and let out a long sigh. He drew his knees up to his chest and rested his now folded arms on them. Keith knew that as much as Lance liked to talk, he would not be the first one to break this silence.

 

“Well,” he started, getting Lance’s attention and gaze, “that could have gone better.”

 

Lance rolled his eyes and turned his head away while growling out, “Shut it, Kogane.”

 

 _I can’t get anything right,_ Keith thought to himself. But he kept trying- kept cracking away at Lance’s icy mood.

 

“I mean, you were right,” Keith said, Lance’s eyes briefly flickering over to him, “but you sounded like a complete asshole the way you said it.”

 

Lance huffed out a laugh before quietly replying, “Sometimes it feels like all I know how to do is piss everyone off.” Keith  furrowed his brows in confusion.

 

“I’m here,” he replied, “why would I be talking to you if I was pissed off at you.” Lance shrugged in response, sniffling his nose. The sound drew Keith to look at Lance’s face where he noticed tears welling in the corner of Lance’s eyes.

 

“Talk to me. You always get shot down by Allura,” _in more ways than one,_ “so why were you so... thrown off this time?”

 

Lance took a long pause before responding- swiping away tears before he spoke. “I almost died today.” He stopped and looked over at Keith who gave him an encouraging nod.

 

“Everytime I bring up earth to Allura is because it’s invading my mind. Not just on it, but seeping into every corner.” He sat up straighter, spreading his legs out before continuing, “Usually, it’s when I dream about them, but not always. I feel like I’m always dreaming about them.

 

But, I almost died today. If I die, who’s going to tell my parents? Who’s going to let them know, if Allura won’t even let us go back to earth? What did the Garrison even tell them? Did they use the age old ‘practice accident’ excuse? It’s just so unfair sometimes, I wish I could just see them for a day or two.” By this point Lance was close to sobbing. He was taking shallow breaths and tears kept streaming down his face, soaking his shirt.

 

Keith gently put his arm around Lance’s shoulders and rubbed his hand up and down his arm. Lance leaned into Keith, his crying only intensifying. They sat there for a long while, Keith’s hand eventually migrating to Lance’s hair and Lance migrated to laying down with his head in Keith’s lap.

 

It had been silent for a moment, Lance’s cries finally subsided when he whispered, “I just miss them so damn much.”

 

Keith’s heart ached for this boy. Lance was a source of light in Keith’s life, he couldn’t stand to see him this sad. He continued to stroke Lance’s hair and said, “Tell me about them.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Tell me about your family, anything you want me to know. You shouldn’t have to keep it in all the time. We’re all here for you. I- I’m here for you.” Lance’s blue eyes seemed to stare up into Keith’s soul for a moment before he smiled.

 

“Pidge reminds me so much of my cousin Eliza, I never want them to meet. One time she...” Lance continued on for about an hour, talking in depth about all of his cousins and siblings. When he started yawning, Keith got him up and walked him to his room to sleep. They said their goodbyes at the door.

 

“G’night Lance. I’d love to hear your dreams sometime too, you don’t have to keep them to yourself either.” After that, Lance would seek Keith out and detail every part of his dream when it was about his family. Keith wouldn’t always pay attention to the details, but the way Lance lit up when talking about his dreams made Keith’s heart burn.

 

Keith had never had to discuss his own dreams with Lance because he never had them. Unfortunately for Keith, that changed rather quickly. After Keith’s head hit the pillow, it was like his brain and anxiety were working together to create the worst case scenario dream for him to be thrown into.

 

He was back on Seifront with Pidge and Lance by his sides and they were surrounded. But, instead of just the sentries, Haggar was there as well. She was controlling the sentries with one hand and bringing Yellow and Black down to the surface of the moon with her other. As soon as they crashed, Keith could hear Hunk and Shiro’s scream reverberating in his skull.

 

Suddenly, Lance was in front of him, blocking a blast from Haggar. He fell to the ground as Keith yelled out, “No!” He scooped up Lance in his arms but his body turned to ash at Keith’s touch. He looked over and saw Haggar using Pidge as a marionette doll. She was suspended on strings attached broken pieces of their lions.

 

“Stop! You've already won, why are you doing this?” Keith asked in vain. Haggar laughed, her voice echoing throughout his head until it seemed to be coming from inside his own chest. He saw her grab Pidge’s wrist as Pidge’s eyes turned bright red and- that was the last thing he remembered before being thrown into consciousness.

 

He knew he was awake because the vivid images from his dream were playing in his mind, but he couldn’t see anything in reality. His breathing was labored and he went to clutch his chest when he realized he couldn’t move. He tried to move his hands but his body would not respond. His breath was reduced to panting, and Haggar’s laugh continued to echo in his mind. It felt like she was right behind him.

 

Keith tried to move again but still nothing. His breath was too shallow so he began gulping air down. Finally, on one deep breath, he was finally fully awake. He shot straight up in bed and threw his legs out of his covers. He moved without reason with only one though in his head: _Lance._

 

He made it to his door and slapped around on the wall for a minute before finding the panel. When the door opened, he caught himself on the door frame. His breathing was still erratic and his strength still wasn’t all back, but he persisted. He felt along on the wall as he headed towards Lance’s room. _Thank god we’re next door neighbors._

 

He found Lance’s door, feeling the change in the sleek metal of the frame jutting out of the wall. He started his soft knocks on the door, not having strength to do much else. It took about 10 knocks for him to tire out. His back thumped against the door and he sunk to the floor, sucking in as much air as possible but still never getting enough.

 

Once he fully hit the floor, the door slid open, causing him to topple backwards into Lance’s room.

 

“Keith?” Lance asked, still half asleep, letting out a yawn after speaking. He must have noticed Keith on the floor because he immediately knelt down and said, “Hey, Keith, buddy, what’s going on?”

 

Keith couldn’t respond or do much more besides grab at Lance. Lance helped Keith sit up before saying, “Breathe with me, Keith, c’mon.” Lance Pulled Keith’s hand to his own chest as he counted, “We’ll start small, in for 4, hold for 2, out for 3...” They continued like that, building up Keith’s endurance until he was able to breathe on his own.

 

Lance pulled him to his feet for a moment before shuffling him over to the bed. He laid down first, pulling Keith down until he was resting on top of him. Keith buried his face in Lance’s shoulder as he continued to take deep breaths.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lance asked, stroking up and down Keith’s back.

 

“Nightmare,” he muttered into Lance’s shoulder. He took a shuddering breath before continuing, “We were back on Seifront but Haggar was there. Everyone died and you- you turned to dust in my hands.” Keith knew that if his eyes would have allowed for it, there would have been tears pricking the backs of his eyes. His arms which had been resting useless next to Lance’s head found there way into his hair and began smoothing it down.

 

“I’m here, it was just a dream, you’re okay.” Lance repeated this like it was a mantra. Keith began to calm down but every couple of minutes he would be thrown back into the memories of his dream and we would clutch at Lance.

 

He felt a slow rumble underneath him for a moment and thought Lance was snoring before his hearing caught up to his sense of touch. Lance had begun singing some song that Keith didn’t recognize, at no more than a whisper. Keith resituated himself in Lance’s arms so that he was lying next to him with his head on Lance’s chest. He could feel the vibrations of Lance’s singing going straight into his head and lulling him to sleep.

 

The last thing he remembered before drifting off to sleep for the second time that night was Lance stroking his hair and... kissing his forehead? _This is a much better dream than last time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo-hoo here it is! This chapter was so long and I felt like it went no where, Yippee!
> 
> Synopsis: Keith has a nightmare where he is back on Seifront but this time they are facing Hagar and she kills the rest of the paladins. He wakes up to find he can't move becuase of sleep paralysis (which I based off of my own experiences with it) and seeks out Lance while having a panic attack.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up to a dreamlike situation and helps Keith through his morning without vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chap 5 or more accurately titled: how many tropes can i cram into 1 fic! This chapter is the longest so far, coming in at 5.6k. Hope you enjoy! There is a picture edit in this chapter so if you need an explanation, go to the end of the chapter to get a description!
> 
> For the image- the check marks are supposed to be like when you thumbs up a post and the x's are saying they dislike the post. The colors of each check or message correspond to their paladin while pink is Allura and orange is Coran. 
> 
> Comments are greatly appreciated, I love talking to anyone who reads this!

Lance was having a nice day, something that rarely happened lately. He was in a kitchen, standing around while Hunk was cooking and Pidge was sitting at the counter. Hunk said something that made them all laugh, although he couldn’t recall what exactly Hunk had said. Suddenly, he heard a door in the other room open. He didn’t know why, but his feet carried him immediately to the noise. When he arrived, he saw Keith setting down his keys and stepping out of his shoes.

 

He was wearing an outfit that Lance had never seen him in before, a pair of black skinny jeans and a baseball shirt Lance recognized to be his own. His signature red cropped jacket was traded out for a soft grey zipper hoodie that when Lance caught his eyes, seemed to bring out the purple tones in them. Instead of waiting for a hello he stalked right up to Keith, grabbed him by the front of his hoodie, and kissed him. It started out soft, a hello kiss, but when Keith wrapped his arms back around Lance, he couldn’t help but to deepen it. 

 

His hands traveled to Keith’s hair and he used his leverage to pull a soft gasp out of Keith. He used this opportunity to slip his tongue into Keith’s mouth and slowly back him up towards the wall. They continued to adjust their heads, reconnecting their lips over and over. Lance could feel a small smile creeping into the kiss and pulled back for a second when Keith’s back hit the wall. He took a moment to open his eyes,  _ when did I even close them?,  _  and meet Keith’s gaze.

 

“Hi,” he muttered, pecking Keith’s lips again but quickly pulling away. 

 

“That was some hello,” Keith replied, kissing him back for a moment. The kiss was chaste again, but only for a moment. Keith took control and flipped their positions, pushing Lance against the wall. Just as Keith began to slip a leg in between Lance’s, Pidge interrupted the moment. 

 

“Oi! Get in here! You guys live together, you can make out anytime. Tonight is movie night!”

 

Lance groaned and slumped his head against the wall. Keith chuckled and leaned in and pecked his cheek before moving to his ear to whisper, “We’ll continue this later.”

 

Lance’s heart sped up, at the prospect of that as he leaned in to whisper, “I’ll hold you to that.” 

 

All of the sudden, Keith was forced away from Lance as Pidge pushed between them, “Stop being gross!” With a shove, she pushed Keith towards the kitchen.

 

“Let me say hello to my fiance, Pidge. You didn’t have to be rude,” Keith huffed as she continued to shove at him. The rest of their conversation was drowned out by Lance’s thumping heart. His brain seemed to be stuck, repeating one word:  _ fiancé.  _ He tried to remember who proposed to who, or what had lead to this event, but his brain seemed to be unwilling to remind him. He gathered himself for a moment, resting his head against the wall before heading to the kitchen. When he was halfway there a knock on the door had him turning back. He opened the door to see a familiar figure and then-

 

A sharp intake through his nose. He peeked his eyes open to find a familiar mop of hair resting on his chest and soft blue lights illuminating the room. His heart was pounding in his ears, pushing him away from the dream. This wasn’t the first time he had a dream like this, over the past few months they had become more frequent. But usually, when he woke up he was alone and didn’t have to face the real embarrassment that his subconscious brought him. 

 

His other senses flooded in and he felt himself clutching at Keith, one hand resting on his lower back, and the other in his hair. Lance slowly sat up, shifting Keith oh so carefully as to not wake him up. He ended up in a slumped position since Keith had made a soft noise and buried his face into Lance’s side before he was in an upright position. Lance’s breath caught in his throat but when Keith made no move to wake up any more, he reached over to his bedside table to grab his tablet. 

 

He pulled up the logs from the morning, checking the responses to the message he had sent when he crawled into bed the previous night. 

 

 

As soon as he had reached Pidge’s last message, his tablet began ringing as her ID lit up the screen. He quickly shut off the function before opening his private message with her. However, before he could even type a single letter, she was banigng on his door and shouting, “Lance! I know you hung up on me, I heard your tablet ringing!”

 

Lance let out a loud “Shh!” before glancing down at a still unconscious Keith. His face was still tucked into Lance’s side and was slack, showing no emotion. Lance’s skimmed past Keith’s bandages and nose, getting caught on his lips. He drank in the sight of the slight part in them and was thrust back into his dream for a moment before he heard his door slide open. 

 

“I know for a fact that was locked!” he whisper yelled across the room as Pidge strut in. 

 

“Please,” Pidge began, rolling her eyes while still looking down at her tablet, “I’m the one who programmed the system, of course I have a master key.” Finally, she looked up from her tablet and immediately froze in her path. Lance’s eyes shot as wide as they could and he could feel a blush creeping onto his face. 

 

He frantically tried to stop Pidge before she began, “Pidge, Pigeon, Pidgeotto, it’s  _ not _ what it looks like.” Pidge didn’t respond but her face split into an impish grin as she raised her tablet and began snapping photos. She got close enough to be sitting on Lance’s bed by his feet, but was far enough away that he couldn’t reach her. 

 

“Hunk owes me so much for snapping these. He’s going to be so sad he missed this.”

 

“There’s nothing too miss! Please don’t show him, he doesn’t need to see them!” Lance almost begged. Hunk was a great best friend, and someone who Lance would sacrifice himself for in a heartbeat. 

 

Hunk had been there so many times for Lance, he had lost count. Which means that Hunk was there all those nights in the garrison when Lance was complaining about Keith and his, “stupid pretentious, luscious, hair.” He was also there to hear Lance complain about, “his stupid amazing flying and fighting skills” and how he always, “threw himself into danger without a second thought.” Hunk knew about Lance’s crush before he did and had been the one to inform Lance of it in the first place.

 

They had been hanging in the kitchen late one night while Hunk was experimenting with some new herbs they had picked up. Lance was reflecting on the training session from earlier in the day, secretly looking for praise and attention while pointing out how well he did in certain areas. Thank god Hunk knew what Lance needed and gave him the praise he craved so much. 

 

“...and did you see how awesome my kick was today? I got it down in my own body now I just have to perfect it with voltron!” Lance said excitedly swinging his legs as he sat perched on the edge of the counter. 

“Dude, that was so cool! We’ll have to ask Pidge for the footage later and put it to some cool action music. And I’ll totally back you up next time you want to try a kick. With both of us on board we got this!” Hunk replied, never stopping the chopping and stirring he was doing several feet away. 

 

“Yeah, that’ll show Keith! He’ll be like ‘wow Lance! that was so cool!’ Too bad he wasn’t watching in practice today, he was too busy showing off ugh. If I have to watch him take down another practice sentry on his own-” 

 

“I don’t think he’s trying to show off, Lance. I think he was just practicing.”

 

“And don’t get me started on that stupid ponytail, like, we get it! You look like a glorious sweaty greek god, you don’t have to shove it in our face.”

 

“Uhh Lance? Are you talking about Shiro now?”

 

“Uh no, Hunk. I’m talking about Keith!”

 

“Okay but you just called him a greek god... because he tied his hair up.”

 

“Yeah but did you see him? He smirked at me as he did it! He knows he was showing off!”

 

“Lance, buddy. You are so dense sometimes,” Hunk said, stopping his chopping to rest his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

 

Lance looked up at him, stopping his legs from swinging and resting a hand on Hunk’s shoulder as well, “What do you mean?”

 

“For a guy who flirts with everything you are really bad at figuring out when someone is flirting with you.”

 

The room was silent for about 15 seconds before Hunk’s words clicked in Lance’s brain. “You mean  _ Keith!?”  _  He screeched, yanking his hand off of Hunk’s shoulder and hopping off the counter. He nervously paced the room while rambling, “Keith? Keith Kogane, the red paladin. My  _ sworn  _ rival. You’re crazy, Hunk! He would never flirt with- with  _ me _ !” He ended his rant and looked at Hunk with wide eyes. 

 

Hunk sighed before explaining, “Lance, you two flirt  _ all  _ the time, we all know it. You two haven’t really been rivals since we first got here. Now it’s more that you two are just showing off so  the other will notice you. 

 

“Wait, back up.  _ I  _ flirt with  _ Keith? _ No, no way!” Lance yelled, slumping against the the counter by Hunk’s feet. 

 

“Lance, you’ve always been this way about boys you like. You flirt with girls with pick up lines, you flirt with guys by pulling their pigtails, so to say. Remember Brian in 7th grade?”

 

Lance would have rather forgotten about Brian Johnsen from 7th grade and the mess that his crush became. Thankfully, Brian moved over the summer and Lance didn’t have to deal with another year of a gym class rivalry. 

 

“Yeah,” Lance finally replied after half a minute of contemplation, “but  _ Keith? _ ”

 

“Yeah, dude. Keith. I’m surprised you haven’t thought about this before.”

 

The thing is, he has thought about this before. Every time his brain vaguely approached the subject, he would shut down that road of thought. But, late at night the thoughts would creep in while he laid in bed. Too keyed up to sleep, thoughts of the red paladin would creep into his mind. By the time morning would roll around, Lance would block all thoughts from last night out of his head and concentrate on the present goal- beating Keith.

 

“Wow,” Lace said eventually, “I have a crush on Keith.”

 

“I’m proud of you for admitting it, bud,” Hunk said with a snicker. 

 

The room was silent again for a moment, with only the sound of Hunk’s chopping echoing throughout. After a minute, the door whooshed open, but Lance couldn’t see who walked in.

 

“Hey, Hunk,” he heard Keith’s voice float over the counter, “how’s it going?”

 

“It’s good! What brings you to my neck of the woods?” Hunk asked, eyes glancing down at Lance sitting next to him. Their eyes met and Lance saw a larger smile take over Hunk’s face. 

 

“Just getting a water pouch after doing some more combat training,” Keith said, making his way around the counter to the space-fridge. (That’s what they called it since it worked the same, but looked completely different than an earth fridge.) 

 

“How’s that going? Getting better at dual wielding?”

 

“Yeah, pretty well actually. I still like it more as a dagger than a sword, I just have to get used to the weight.” He finally made his way completely around the counter and laid eyes on Lance. 

 

Lance looked up at him with a wide grin and crazy eyes before waving at him. Keith stopped in his tracks, one eyebrow cocked, disappearing behind his bangs. He gave a small wave back at Lance before continuing on his path the the space-fridge. 

 

Hunk’s eyes caught the motion so he said, “Ignore Lance, he’s having a personal crisis.”

 

Lance let out an undignified squawk of, “Hunk!” while hitting his legs before looking back at Keith smiling wide. 

 

Keith had finished extracting a water pouch and was turned around to leave. He let out a chuckle before saying, “See ya later, Hunk.” and making his way to the door. 

 

“Bye, Keith,” Hunk said, waving at him as he walked through the door. 

 

Keith stopped before completely exiting and turned around to throw, “I hope you get... whatever is going on sorted out, Lance.” 

 

Hunk waited for the door to close completely behind him to bust out laughing. He doubled over, clutching his stomach and continued to laugh. When he finally calmed down a bit and caught Lance’s expression, the laughing started all over again. 

 

Lance interrupted him by smacking his leg again and yelling, “Not cool, dude!”

 

“I’m sorry- your face! I-I couldn’t help it,” Hunk said between bouts of laughter.

 

Needless to say, Lance couldn't trust Hunk not to make fun of him, looking at the pictures Pidge took. He didn’t want to deal with all the laughter at his expense, especially because he knows Hunk would be 1000 times worse now. 

 

Pidge just snickered quietly at Lance’s protests before stepping away from him. They headed to the door before saying, “Just bring Keith to the mess hall to get his goggles, I’m not going to wait around for you guys to get ready.”

 

Lance nodded his head at Pidge and swore he heard her say, “so cute!” just as the door shut behind her. Lance sighed and slumped back down into bed, sinking and adjusting Keith so they were laying next to each other. 

 

He closed his eyes for a moment but was plagued by images from his dream.  His eyes shot open again- with Keith so physically close, it was hard for his brain to tell the difference between fiction and reality. He started to slowly unravel Keith from his side, but once he moved Keith’s arm wrapped around him tighter. 

 

Keith sucked in a breath before forecfully blowing it out his nose and shifting around. His body was slack for a moment before suddenly becoming ridgid. He pulled away from Lance and let out a confused, “L’nce?”

 

Lance chuckled and pushed some of the hair away from his face as he said, “Hey, bud.”

 

“Why are you in my room?” Keith asked, head tilting up to Lance’s hand as he brushed his hair aside. Lance couldn’t tell if it was an intentional movement or not, but the movement warmed his heart and face nonetheless. 

 

“You’re in my room, dude,” Lance replied with a chuckle.

 

“Oh yeah,” Keith said quietly, “thanks, by the way.”

 

“Of course,” Lance replied. They sat in silence for a moment, Lance’s hand brushing through the part of Keith’s hair that was free from the gauze that wrapped its way around his skull as Keith sighed at the contact. After a minute, Keith broke the silence.

 

“Was Pidge here?” he asked.

 

“Yup,” Lance said, “she was looking for you to give you the goggles she rigged up.”

 

“I thought I was dreaming. Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked.

 

In that moment, Lance thanked every deity he knew that Keith couldn’t see how red his face had become. He cleared his throat before he replied, “You needed your sleep after last night.”

 

“Yeah but I was in a pod for like, two weeks. I don’t really need more sleep.” 

 

“Well,” Lance said, clearing his throat again, “speaking of being in a pod for two weeks, you really need to shower, your hair is disgusting.”

 

“Well, you're the one touching it,” Keith refuted. 

 

“I’ll have you know,” Lance started, pulling an excuse out of his ass, “I was trying to figure out what product would best get rid of all the junk in your hair.”

 

“Sure,” Keith said incredulously, “and what did you decide, hmm?”

 

“You’re going to have to wash your hair like five times to get rid of all this grease the normal way. Thankfully, I have some special shampoo you leave in for a couple minutes before washing out that should do the trick instead. And some face wash for you to use while you’re at it, your pores will thank me.”

 

“Okay, help me get to the shower then,” Keith said, as he reached out to pat Lance’s cheek before he rolled over and off the bed. He gracefully landed on his feet and left Lance’s jaw dropped open as he stretched into the air. 

 

“You going to help me with these bandages?” Keith asked, as he smirked in Lance’s direction before he headed towards the bathroom door. 

 

_ He’s going to be the death of me.  _

 

Lance quickly hopped to his feet and trailed behind Keith. He had only made it to the general area of Lance’s bathroom door, since he couldn’t actually see anything and thus couldn’t open it. Lance brushed past him for a moment, and pressed the pad to open the door. He grabbed Keith’s wrist before he tugged him inside. 

 

“Okay,” he began, “Since your bandages can’t get wet, but your eyes also can’t get wet, I was thinking that you could put a helmet on while in the shower and wash your hair and face in the sink after.”

 

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this, huh?” Keith asked. “Are you going to help me wash my hair then, since you  _ apparently  _ know more about it than I do?”

 

Lance’s face continue to burn at Keith’s words so he just grabbed his helmet from where it was sitting on the counter and smushed in on over Keith’s head. The sudden motion caused Keith to stumble into Lance’s chest. His hand had been out in order to regain balance, so he pushed at Lance from where it was resting on his pectoral. 

 

Lance let out an embarrassed laugh before he said, “Just put the visor down and get in the shower.” Keith chuckled before he clicked the visor shut then shucked his pants and quickly dragged his shirt over his head. He stopped before he stripped farther but it was a revelation for Lance as he had difficulties tearing his eyes away from Keith. 

 

The last two times he had seen Keith this exposed had been in the dim light of Keith’s room and when Keith was mortally injured. Neither of those circumstances  were the time to be checking Keith out, but now, Lance could hardly resist. He forced himself to shut his eyes to give Keith some privacy until Keith said, “You going to help me to the shower, or am I going to have to stumble around knocking all your products down?”

 

Lance opened his eyes, but kept them trained on Keith’s head. He pushed Keith into the shower and shut the door behind him. It took a moment for the water to turn on, but once it did, Lance heard Keith’s remaining clothes splash on the shower floor. 

 

“I’m going to go get you some clothes. The body wash is to the right of the faucet, just pick one you like,” Lance said hurriedly as he backed out of the room. He opened the bathroom door before he heard a clatter of bottles falling onto the shower floor. 

 

“Uh, my bad!” Keith called over the pounding of the water.

 

“S’okay, I’ll clean it up later,” Lance said before shutting the door behind him. When the door was completely closed he slumped against it and rested the back of his head on the cool metal. 

 

“Now is  _ not  _ the time, McClain,” Lance said to himself as he pushed away thoughts of himself in the same position in a completely different scenario. His dream had started to creep into the back of his mind before he lightly slapped himself on the face and headed to Keith’s room. He grabbed a pair of Keith’s spandex pants, which would surely be more comfortable than his jeans, and a fresh t-shirt  and pair of underwear from his drawers. 

 

_ And if Keith’s calves happen to look fantastic in these pants, that’s just a bonus.  _

 

He hurried back to his room, eager to not get caught by one of the others and have to explain the situation. It was embarrassing enough that everyone seemed to know about his feelings for Keith, he didn’t want to try and combat their teasing at every turn. He made it back into the bathroom just in time to hear the water shut off. Keith must have heard the door shut behind him because he asked, “Uhh, do you have a towel I can use?”

 

“Yeah,” Lance said as he grabbed one from his stash and threw it over the door. Keith must have caught it before it fell to the floor because he simply let out a quick thanks.

 

“I have some clothes for you too,” Lance said, placing them on the counter. Keith stepped out of the shower his a towel draped around his waist. It was a weird look, Keith naked and wrapped in a towel, wearing only Lance’s helmet. 

 

_ This will definitely play a role in my next dream,  _ Lance thought to himself as he audibly  gulped. 

 

He handed Keith some underwear before he turned around and averted his eyes.

 

“Any pants?” Keith asked after he had pulled on the clothes Lance had handed him. 

 

“Yeah,” Lance said, “I brought your stretch pants since you legs might be too worn out to wear jeans at the moment.” He handed Keith the pants before continuing, “We’ll leave your shirt off for now though.”

 

“Oh? And why’s that?” Keith smirked again as he pulled on his pants.

 

_ I can’t believe I ever thought he never flirted with me. I was such an idiot.  _

 

“I-I have to wash your hair now. You, uhh, you don’t want to have to change your shirt because it got all wet,” Lance stumbled out. “Just take the helmet off while I grab you a chair.” He hurried back into his room for a moment to grab his desk chair. He brought it back into the bathroom and positioned it so it’s back was right up against the basin of the sink. 

 

He walked back to Keith before he said, “Here, let me help,” and slowly undid Keith's bandage. 

 

“Thanks,” Keith said as he dropped his hands from where they had been attempting to unravel the mess of gauze wrapped around his head. 

 

The rest of Keith’s face was fine, but underneath the bandage seemed to be a bit of a mess. His eyelids were glued shut, thanks to Coran’s influence with the pod, but they were still pink and slightly swollen. Lance could recall the bloodied mess that Keith’s face had been after the explosion, this seemed like a big improvement. 

 

He carefully guided Keith back to the sink and sat him down in the chair with his back against the sink. Thankfully, all of the faucets in the castle came with a moveable hose that they were attached to so he didn’t have to worry about scooping water towards Keith’s hair. Once Keith was secure on the seat, he went to the shower and grabbed the shampoo and conditioner he had decided to use on Keith’s hair. 

 

He turned the sink on and ran the water over his skin to test the temperature. “Let me know if the water is too hot or cold,” he told Keith before he pointed the water towards his scalp. “Is this okay?” he asked, the question loaded with meaning more than just the water temperature. 

 

“It’s good, thanks,” Keith said, slumping back in the chair to reach his head farther into the sink. Lance went about washing Keith’s hair, getting lost in the memories. He thoroughly wet Keith’s hair before adding a good amount of shampoo and lathering it up. He was careful to gather all Keith’s hair at the back of his head and keep the product away from his face. He didn’t turn the water back on, leaving the shampoo to sit for five minutes and do its magic.

 

It was just like every time he helped Danielle dye her hair back at home. He would help her wash it in the sink since he was the only one who seemed to be able to do it without getting the runoff dye everywhere. When his older brother Matt had tried, their mom had yelled at them for staining the tile by the sink bright pink for a week. He chuckled at the memory.

 

Keith let out a hum in response to his chuckle which prompted him to explain. “I used to wash my sister’s hair in the sink whenever she dyed it. When my brother tried to help, he would just get the leftover dye  _ everywhere _ , which is why she had me do it. It’s funny to me that my skills are actually being put to use in space.” Lance let out a sad chuckle as he finished his story and felt Keith’s hand reach out. He met Keith halfway, since having him grope around Lance’s waist for his hand was an excitable idea but not very appropriate for the conversation. 

 

Keith took Lance’s hand and gently ran his thumb over his knuckles. It ran in a straight line over the peaks of the bones and the valleys in between before looping back around them. The motion brought Lance close to tears and he brought his other hand to his face and wiped them away. 

 

“I’m glad you can tell me about them,” Keith whispered. Lance was grateful for the hushed tone, some conversations couldn’t be held at a normal volume. 

 

“Honestly, I’d love for them to meet you if we-”

 

“ _ When _ we,” Keith corrected.

 

“ _ When  _ we,” Lance chuckled, “get back to earth.”

 

Keith smiled up at him before he said, “I’d love to meet them too.” Lance could feel a tear streaming down his face and disengaged his hand from Keith’s to press the heels of his palms into his eyes. 

 

“Wow, I always knew I’d cry over you hair someday,” Lance joked, “I just thought it would be because of your terrible hairstyle.”

 

“Haha, very funny. Y’know the mullet jokes got tiring after the first time you made them.”

 

“I know,” Lance said as he grabbed Keith’s hand again and squeezed it for a moment. “I think it’s about time to wash this out.” He moved back to hunching over the sink as he turned the water back on and rinsed all the shampoo out of Keith’s hair. One hand massaged through Keith’s scalp while the other pointed the faucet in the right direction. The rest of the process took very little time. Lance used a small amount of conditioner that washed quickly out of Keith’s hair. 

 

When he was done, Lance sat Keith up all the way and grabbed a towel to dry his hair. He carefully squeezed all the excess water out of Keith’s hair and gently dried it. It was still a bit damp and he knew that Keith needed a bandage back over his eyes so he grabbed a ponytail holder from his stash and pulled the top half of Keith’s hair into a bun resting in the top of his head. 

 

“That’s a little high, don’t you think?” Keith asked, referring to the placement of the bun. 

 

“You never let me do your hair,” Lance shot back, “let me experiment just this once.” Once the bun was solidly in place, Lance grabbed the bandage from the counter and carefully wrapped Keith’s eyes again.When he finished, he let his hands linger on Keith’s cheeks for a moment and Keith leaned his head into Lance’s palm. 

 

_ I knew I wasn’t imagining it earlier! _ Lance excitedly yelled in his head. He could feel a small chuckle come from Blue in the back of his mind. She wasn’t always present, but when his emotions got very large sometimes, she would send some back in response  across their bond.

 

Lance pulled himself away from Keith and handed him his shirt. Keith took it with a small smile on his face and quickly pulled it over his head. Before, Lance had thought it was just one of the lighter grey t-shirts that Keith owned. Now, however, when the shirt was unfolded and on Keith’s frame, Lance could see it was one of his own. 

 

“When did you take that from me?” he asked, voice squeaking on the last couple of words.

 

“What?” Keith asked, hands roaming his chest and arms to feel the shirt. “Why did you give me one of  _ your  _ shirts?”

 

“What! I pulled that out of your drawers! I thought it was one of yours because it was folded in with the rest. I didn’t see the sleeves until you put it on.” Lance’s heart almost beat out of his chest as it thumped in time with the racing thoughts in his mind:  _ He looks so good in that. He looks so good in my clothes. He was hiding my shirt in his drawer. He look so- _

 

“It was probably just a laundry mix up,” Keith shrugged, “I can go get another shirt if it’s going to bother you-”

 

“No!” Lance almost yelled before he cleared his throat to collect himself, “It’s fine. Let’s just head to the dining hall to get your goggles.”

 

Keith chuckled at Lance’s outburst but said, “Okay,” and grabbed onto Lance’s arm when he offered it. Together they made their way to the dining hall in relative silence. Lance was too embarrassed to talk about anything that had happened in the past twelve hours, and Keith was always content to be in silence. Keith had his arm looped through Lance’s as he tugged him along and Lance’s skin was on fire from the contact. 

 

Lance knew his face had been a constant tomato red since Keith woke up last night. Everything Keith did set him on edge and the dream he had wasn’t helping one bit. Lance was lost in thought about what Keith’s eyes would look like once they were healed that he hadn’t even realized they were right outside the dining hall. 

 

As soon as he had the door open, Pidge cried out, “Finally! I thought I was going to have to wait forever.” She looked up from her tablet which she was playing games on and her eyes landed on Keith. “Nice hair, Keith.”

 

“Yeah,” he replied, “You can thank Lance for that.”

 

The made their way over to her and sat down together. Lance disentangled his arm from Keith but stayed shifted in his seat so their shoulders were touching. Pidge’s eyes gleamed with mischievousness as she opened her mouth and said, “and nice shirt,” and threw a wink at Lance.

 

_ That little- _

 

“Laundry mishap,” is what he said instead of the choice words his brain had provided him. She smirked at him and winked again before pulling Keith’s new goggles from her pocket.

 

“So, these are set up to be worn kind of like the mind meld helmet, that way they don’t have to be super tight to stay up. The bun was actually a great a idea so your hair doesn’t get caught in the straps. Basically, what these are is two cameras placed to look like goggles that give you cyborg eyes. Thankfully, we have the aide of a sentient magical giant lion robot to help you connect to the interface, otherwise I’d have to figure out a way to plug this right into your brain. All you’ll have to do is put them on and call upon Red, who is receiving the feed from the cameras, to put the images in your brain. I tested them out on myself and they’re pretty spectacular, if not a little surreal.”

 

Pidge moved to where Keith was sitting and placed the goggles over his head and positioned them on top of his bandaged eyes. She tightened a few straps on them to keep them from slipping off and said, “They’re all set. See if Red can give you the feed.”

 

It was only a moment before Keith said, “Woah, this is... weird,” and turned his head from side to side, looking around the room. 

 

“Yeah, one of the setbacks is I didn’t have enough time to program them to move like eyes, so you’re stuck with having to move your head to look places. I can work on them more though, if you want, just give me like a week and I’ll-” she was cut off by Keith as he threw his arms around her waist and hugged her tight.

 

“Thank you,” he said, obviously choked up over the ordeal. Pidge smiled down at him and gently returned the hug. 

 

“Wow,” Lance said, “a Keith hug and a Pidge hug! I feel like I’m watching a cryptid form in front of my own eyes.” Pidge gave him the finger and let go of Keith. His back had been to Lance as Pidge fitted him with the goggles and he finally turned around to look at him. Lance was smirk was wiped off of his face when the first thing Keith said upon laying eyes, or well, robot eyes, on him was, “Dude, you look like shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me on tumblr at [vldspacesqaud](vldspacesquad.tumblr.com) :) and [check out some artwork i did of keith after he got out of the shower ](http://linkisdumb.tumblr.com/post/163512043858/since-i-told-le-lex-that-i-would-try-to-draw)at the suggestion of my beta
> 
> Picture description:
> 
> Group chat name- Castle crew
> 
> Lance: K's up. Put him to sleep in his room. (Checked by Coran, Allura, Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge)
> 
> Pidge: I'll head over b4 bfast 2 give him the goggles. (Checked by Lance)
> 
> Hunk: bfast in 20! (Checked by Coran, Allura, Shiro, and Pidge)
> 
> Shiro: thx hunk. (Checked by Hunk)
> 
> Allura: briefing at noon (Checked by Pidge, Hunk, Coran, and Shiro)
> 
> Coran: and don't forget, it's cleaning day!!! *hearteyes emoji* (x'ed by Hunk and Pidge)
> 
> Pidge: any1 see K? he's not in his room. @Lance


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets his goggles and a small talk from Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter coming in at only 3.6k but the next one should be a bit longer! There were no major flashbacks in this one so that took away from the word count.

Keith hadn’t meant for the first words to come out of his mouth upon laying eyes on Lance to be, “dude, you look like shit,” but sometimes his brain to mouth filter decided to quit for a moment and screw him over. They had such a good morning too. When he woke up next to Lance, something in Keith shifted as his heart sang  _ I want to do this everyday.  _ He had purposely flirted with Lance in the past, but he had made the conscious decision to flirt at every available opportunity from then on out. 

 

He wished he could have seen Lance’s reactions to all the flirting, because Keith had laid it on thick. He was sure to keep his smirk intact, leaning into Lance whenever he was in proximity, and lightly teasing him about everything. So far, he had heard Lance falter only about three times, but with the return of his vision he was sure he could catch him more. 

 

That is until he had to ruin it by telling Lance he looked like shit. Lance let out an indignant squawk while Pidge simply said, “And that’s my cue to leave, let me know if you have  a problem with the goggles, Keith!” and darted from the room. 

 

When he heard the door shut behind Pidge, he brought his hand to Lance’s cheek and cupped it. “Well,” he started, “it’s true. You look like you took on a whole Galra fleet by yourself.” In truth, Keith hadn’t thought Lance looked  _ that _ bad, but there were noticeable bags under his eyes as well as a small scabbed scratch that ran from his ear to the corner of his jaw. Keith carefully traced the line with his thumb and felt Lance tense for a moment. 

 

“Maybe I wouldn’t look so bad if someone hadn’t woken me up in the middle of the night,” Lance joked as he put on a smile that didn’t seem to reach his eyes. Keith quickly drew his hand away as if burned and backed away from where he had been leaning into Lance. Lance’s face morphed into one of regret as soon as Keith drew his hand away. He carefully grabbed Keith’s hand in his before he spoke. “That’s not what I meant to say. I’m happy you came to me since you were in- you weren’t doing great. I will always,  _ always,  _ be there when you need me, okay?”

 

Again, Keith’s body decided to work against him and ruin the moment. His stomach let out a huge grumble. “Well, I kinda need you right now,” he started and leaned in towards Lance, “I need you to let go of my hand so I can get some food.”

 

Lance, who had leaned into Keith’s space as well, chuckled at Keith’s response and said, “Who said you need two hands to operate the goo machine? I bet if we work together, we can get our food  _ and  _ keep holding hands, partner.”

 

Keith scoffed goodnaturedly  at Lance’s antics as he stood out of his chair and dragged Keith towards the goo machine. 

“Okay, you grab the plates and I’ll operate the machine,” Lance said as he wore the same expression he did when coming up with a game plan in the heat of battle. His eyebrows were drawn together with a crease in the middle and his mouth was set in a firm straight line. The only difference between that and his battle face was the way his eyes gleamed with excitement instead of adrenaline. 

 

Keith tried to grab two plates with his left hand but was failing to get them out of the drawer at the same time. Lance laughed at him when one of the plates fell to the ground with a small clatter.

 

“I’m not sure why you’re laughing, that’s your plate,” Keith said, bending over to grab the plate while hiding his smile. 

 

“It doesn’t even matter,” Lance said, “I know Coran and Hunk both clean this place twice a week,  _ each _ . I’m not that worried about my plate being on the floor.”

 

Keith finally got the plates stacked in this hand and swiveled around, almost running smack into Lance. Lance helped him separate the plates so he could serve goo on them both at once. He grabbed the nozzle and dispensed a good amount of goo on each one. After he put the nozzle back, he made to grab one of the plates from Keith. Keith pulled his arm just out of reach and told Lance, “You get the bottom one. Don’t think I forgot.”

 

Lance leveled him with a look of amusement before he chuckled out, “okay,” and extracted the plate from Keith. The walked back to the table and sat down ready to eat before Keith realized they had forgotten spoons. 

 

“Uh, Lance? How are we supposed to eat our goo without spoons?”

 

“That’s simple, Keith. I’ll just lift up the plate for you to eat from. It’s like when couples at their wedding feed each other-” Lance said as he raised the plate to Keith’s face.

 

“I am not doing that,” Keith said, effectively cutting him off. “We already got our food, we don’t need to keep holding hands. Let me go grab us some spoons.” Keith stood and squeezed Lance’s hand for a second before going back to the counter and grabbing two spoons. He brought one to Lance, who had already started eating with his fingers, by the looks of it. Lance smiled at him as he took the spoon and they ate in silence together for a moment. 

 

“So, if team voltron was the X-Men, who do you think would be who?” Lance asked, breaking the silence and causing Keith to laugh at the question. Keith accidentally inhaled some goo and coughed a couple times before Lance patted and rubbed him on the back.

 

Once he regained function over his breath, Keith said, “I have no idea. What do you think?”

“Right now” started Lance, “I’d say you give Cyclops a run for his money with those goggles on.” Keith scowled at that but Lance just laughed and continued, “But you’re a lot like Scott anyway, loyal to your friends and cold with anyone else. Plus you’re a bit of a hothead sometimes.”

 

Keith hummed at that and said, “Who would everyone else be?”

 

“Well, think that Allura would be Professor X because she’s really the one in charge and also sometimes it feels like she can read your mind. Pidge would obviously be Magneto because of her penchant for inherently knowing machines. I think Shiro would be Pheonix because he came from a rough background and has these insane powers that he learns how to use for good. Hunk would probably be Colossus because he’s this sweet big dude who’s always trying to take care of others. Coran would probably be Mystique with all the altean shapeshifting he can do.” Lance finished as he attacked his plate of goo. He hadn’t stopped eating while he had been talking, but with a break in speaking he seemed to be dedicating all of his brain power to eating. 

 

“And what about you?” Keith asked.

 

“I don’t know,” Lance said, looking down at his plate for a moment, “I don’t think I’d really fit in with the X-Men.”

 

Keith’s heart skipped a beat, but not for a good reason. His heart ached from Lance’s words and the weight they carried. Keith had been through many dark nights with Lance explaining his feelings of inadequacy, especially back during the lion switch. That’s when it all had really started, Lance being Keith’s right-hand man for an extended period of time. The first time Lance had sought Keith out to discuss his anxieties had been a turning point. 

 

From then on, Lance would come to Keith to tell him off and let him know if there were issues of any kind. Since Lance became Keith’s impulse control, it became easier for him to come to Keith, even with small grievances. Such as the time he came to complain to Keith about Pidge stealing his tooth paste. But there was also times his anxieties and self-worth issues came up. Keith had learned how to placate Lance and remind him of how important he was and put those skills to the test quite frequently. 

 

“Well I think that’s true,” Keith said, taking in Lance’s shock as he whipped his head to Keith with a sad smile on his face, “because you’re Wolverine.”

 

“Hah, what?” Lance asked shock and confusion present in his large eyes and pinched eyebrows. 

 

“Well, Wolverine always thought he was an outsider too but he was the one who brought the team together and lifted everyone up. Like in Days of Futures Past when he helps Charles realize what’s important and tells Charles to bring the team together.” At that point, Lance’s sad smile had turned into a satisfied smirk. 

 

“And in Logan, he basically takes care of everyone and even pushes through his tough exterior to do the right thing. I’m not saying  _ you _ have a tough exterior, but you do put up a front.” Lance laughed at that and looked up at Keith through his lashes. 

 

“I guess you’re right, thanks, Keith.”

 

“Of course, bud.” Keith smiled back at Keith before looked down at his food again to finish eating it. They ate the rest of their food in companionable silence before getting up and clearing their plates. Lance stood at the sink and held his hand out to Keith for his plate so he could was it. When handing it to him, Keith accidentally brushed up against his side, which caused Lance to his plate in the sink with a clatter as he moved to clutch his side.

 

“Woah, you okay?” Keith asked, carefully placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder while the other hovered around his side. 

 

“I’m fine, nothing you need to worry about,” Lance said, sending Keith a too bright smile before quickly turning back to the dishes and rinsing the goo off of the plate. 

 

“Lance, seriously, what’s going on?”

 

“Keith, leave it, it’s nothing,” Lance insisted, shrugging off Keith’s hand and moving to put the dishes away. 

 

“Hey,” Keith whispered, grabbing at Lance’s arm as he walked out of his reach. 

 

“Keith, stop!” Lance yelled, causing Keith to jump and snatch his hand away, “you wouldn’t understand.”

 

“Sorry! What would I not understand?” Lance looked at Keith for a moment but huffed and walked away, ignoring Lance’s question.

 

“Lance,” Keith started again, “If something happened while I was out, I want to know about it, I deserve to know about it.”

 

“You don’t deserve to know  _ shit _ , Keith, lay off.” In that moment Keith was close to tears, even when Lance was his ‘rival’ he had never been so cold to Keith. Of course, he wasn’t capable of actually crying due to the fact that he was seeing through a weird psychic connection with a sentient metal cat, but when he tried to breath it was a gasping sob. 

 

Lance must have seen the distress written across Keith’s face because he turned around for a second and was then suddenly right in front of Keith with a hand on his shoulder. 

 

“Hey, hey, shhh, I’m sorry. I’ve been stressed with you in the pod and that’s no excuse but I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.” Lance’s hand moved from his shoulder to cupping his face while the other gripped his hand and pulled him to sit back at the table. 

 

“Sorry,” Keith said, “I don’t need to know. I just want to help you if it’s bothering you so much that you end up yelling at me.”

 

“I know, and I understand that. But if I tell you I know you’re going to get mad at  _ me  _ and we’ve been doing so well,” Lance said, running his hand up and down Keith’s arm. Keith was distracted by the movement for a moment before he grabbed Lance’s hand and held it between his own.

 

“I can’t promise I won’t get mad but I’ll  _ try _ to stay calm.”

 

“I guess that’s the best I could have hoped for,” Lance said, releasing a deep sigh before continuing, “I just had a couple of cracked ribs and some bruising but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I’m just still healing.”

 

“Okay...” Keith started, trying to keep his tone even, “so did something happen after the battle on Seifront? When did you get hurt?”

 

“No, I got hurt on Seifront. It’s no big deal! Coran said I can’t be put in a pod now anyway,” Lance said, letting out an awkward laugh as he pulled his hand out of Keith’s and scrubbed the back of his neck.

 

“So you were hurt on Seifront, why didn’t you go in a pod?”

 

“Uhhh, the rest of the paladins needed help still.”

 

“But I thought everyone was headed back when we were?”

 

“It certainly seemed that way, but you were just out of it.”

 

“Lance, seriously, you’re obviously lying right now and I know you aren’t a fan of the pods but why wouldn’t you get in one when you were this injured?”

 

“There was only one pod free and you needed it more than me.” Lance said standing up and walking away from Keith again.

 

_ I swear to god, stop walking away! _

 

“Stop walking away! I know there were a bunch of pods ready because I helped Coran set them up. Just tell me you were afraid to go into the pod and I’ll drop it!” Keith was yelling at this point. He started to get worked up again, taking gasping breaths when he could.  He stood up and moved to go after Lance.  

 

“Fine! I was too afraid to go into the pod!” Keith took in Lance’s posture, hunched over and still avoiding looking at Keith. It wasn’t his normal nervous avoidance he did when he finally admitted to something, but rather the avoidance that said he was lying. 

 

“Why don’t I believe that?”

 

“I don’t know, it’s the truth,” Lance said, finally looking at Keith. His eyes were blown wide and his hair a mess from the few seconds of running his fingers through it. 

 

“But it’s not the full truth. What are you not telling me?”

 

“Nothing!”

 

“Stop lying!”

 

“Keith, I told you, I was just too afraid to go in the pod!”

 

“I get that, but this seems like more than just your normal aversion. Why won’t you just tell me, I thought you trusted me?”

 

“Don’t,” Lance started, grabbing Keith's shoulder and rushing into his space, “don’t pull that ‘why don’t you trust me’ bullshit.” He had angrily pushed his forehead against Keith as he was yelling. The phrase  _ I’ll stick you in a wormhole!  _ swept through his mind before he spoke. 

 

“That wasn’t fair, I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me, we don’t need to know everything about each other. I just want to help you.”

 

Lance’s rigid posture melted at Keith’s words. His forehead was still pushed against Keith’s but it had melted into a soft gesture when he moved his hands to cup Keith’s cheeks. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes.

 

“When we got you back here, you were a mess. You died on the table before even going in the pod and then when you were in there, it was touch and go for a whole week.”

 

“Okay, I don’t see why you couldn’t-”

 

“Please,” Lance pleaded, stroking his hand across Keith’s cheekbone, “let me get this all out.” Keith nodded his head, not wanting to interrupt Lance again. “Coran said it would take 3-4 days in the pod to heal all my injuries but I couldn’t wait that long. The possibility that I would wake up and y-you would... that... ugh! Sorry this is hard to talk about.” Keith felt a tear roll down Lance’s cheek and fall onto his own face. He lifted his hands up to Lance’s face and wiped away the stray tears that were falling.

 

“It’s okay,” Keith said, “take your time.”

 

“Coran made it clear that there was a possibility of you never waking up or that you would get worse in the pod. There was a  _ chance,  _ even if it was small, that I would wake up in a world where you were already gone. I couldn’t- I- just- I wouldn’t be able to handle that. The fact that you jumped in front of me to save me and then died without me even being there would have  _ destroyed  _ me.” Lance’s tears were continuing to fall in a steady stream now, making Keith’s feel like he had just splashed his face with a bunch of water. 

 

Lance took a shuddering breath before continuing, “I wasn’t going to let that be a possibility. I lo- I  _ care  _ about you too much to have let you die alone.” 

 

Keith’s heart leapt in his chest at Lance’s words.  _ Did he almost say he loves me? _

 

“I care about you too, I’m sorry I yelled earlier. It just hurts me to see you in pain.”

 

Lance huffed at that, “I’m just healing the old-fashion, human way. Nothing we need to worry about, I’ll be fine in no time.” Keith could feel Lance’s breath against his lips causing him to realize just how close they were.

 

_ I wonder how he would react if I kissed him _ , Keith thought as he pushed his face ever so closer to Lance’s. The were coming together at a snail’s pace and just when Keith’s heart began to sing ‘ _ FINALLY!’  _ the door to the dining hall whooshed open. They sprung apart in an instance, and Keith looked over Lance’s shoulder to see who had walked in. Shiro was looking down at his tablet as he entered the room, but upon noticing he wasn’t alone, looked up at Lance in Keith. 

 

“Keith!” he said, making his way over to him, “I’m glad to see you’re up and about.” He drew Keith into a familiar hug and Keith looked over his shoulders and locked sight with Lance. He was looking at Keith with wide eyes, thin eyebrows raised almost to his hairline and a small smile on his lips. 

 

“Yeah, I can see too, thanks to Pidge,” Keith said, finally returning his brother’s embrace. He tightened his arms giving Shiro a quick squeeze before letting go and stepping back. 

 

“Thanks for being there for him, Lance,” Shiro said, turning around to face Lance. 

 

Lance quickly schooled his expression before saying, “It was really no problem.”

 

Shiro’s eyes flit between them for a moment before landing on Lance again. “Well,” he started, “if you’re done eating, Coran is looking for you, Lance. He’s in the med bay.”

 

“Yeah, we just finished,” Keith said.

 

“Great! Do you want to spar while Lance is helping Coran? We’ll go light to ease your body back into it.” Shiro said as he tossed an arm over Keith’s shoulder and lead him to the door. Keith looked back over his shoulder at Lance and mouthed ‘later’ to him. He just caught Lance’s nod before the doors shut behind them. 

 

Shiro dropped his arm from Keith’s shoulder once they were alone in the corridor. He bumped Keith’s shoulder with his own as he shot him a friendly smile.

 

“You okay?” he asked in his dad voice.

 

“Uhh, yeah, I’m good,” Keith replied, tilting his head to look down as he walked, “a little tired but overall good.”

 

“Good, good. Glad to hear it.” Shiro was silent again for the entire walk to the training room. Once they go there, they began doing pre-workout stretches and Keith felt himself struggling to do a basic toe-touch. 

 

“Shiro,” he said, flopping on the ground out of breath, “I don’t think I’m going to make it to sparring today, I feel like I’m 80 years old.”

 

Shiro laughed at him as he flopped down next to Keith on the ground. “That’s okay, I really just wanted to get you alone to talk to you about something.” Keith’s stomach dropped.

 

“Uhh, okay,” Keith replied, thoughts running a mile a minute.

 

_ What does he want to know? Is it about Black? Is it about the time Kuron was here? Is it about Matt? Is it about- _

 

“So... you and Lance?”

 

Keith squawked at that and sat up, “I have...  _ no  _ clue what you’re even suggesting, Shiro.”

 

“Oh really, then you have no idea why he was outside of your pod for two weeks straight or why Pidge found you in his bed this morning?”

 

_ Pidge! That little quiznack! _

 

“I have no idea what you mean, we’re friends.”

 

Shiro shot him an annoyed expression before saying, “Oh, come on, Keith. I’ve known you since you were 12, I know that you get like this when you have a crush on someone.”

 

“I  _ do not _ have a crush on  _ Lance!”  _ Keith shouted, wrapping his arms around his knees and setting his chin on top of them. 

 

“Ignoring that blatant lie, I’m going to continue with my speech I prepared when you were in the pod.” Shiro said, sitting up and setting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith, I know you like him, and I know he likes you. I don’t know where you are in your relationship, but I think it’s a little passed friends. Listen, I know all of your instincts are telling you to run-”

 

_ Except this time, they’re telling me to run straight into Lance’s arms. _

 

“- but you can’t run from him. You deserve to be happy, and so does he, so don’t give up.”

 

Keith laughed at Shiro’s ‘inspirational’ pep talk before saying, “Thanks, Shiro. You should probably stick to only giving pep talks when fighting though, that was terrible.”

 

Shiro laughed at Keith and said,”Yeah they’re not really my strong suit. But really, don’t wait too long, I thought Lance was going to burst yesterday before you were released.”

 

Keith chuckled at Shiro before coming to an agreement with himself:  _ I am going to tell Lance how I feel,  _ **_today._ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me on tumblr at [vldspacesqaud](vldspacesquad.tumblr.com) :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets a pep talk from Coran and falls down 3 times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Actually writing my fic I've been thinking of for 1.5 years? Impossible!
> 
> Here is a short update that doesn't really get anywhere except show my fav boy some good good love and appreciation. Hope you'll stay tuned for more! Next update will probably be in forever so just keep an eye out!

Lance’s heart was racing as he walked out of the room. His mind was a flutter while his feet were on autopilot taking him to the med bay to meet up with Coran. He was stuck in his brain as he walked down the hallway, dragging his hand along the wall, feeling the cool grooves in the metal. 

 

_ I almost kissed him! God, I love hi-  _

 

Suddenly, Lance found his feet tangling, dragging him to the floor with one misstep. He let out a short, “Shit!” before he found himself face down on the floor. He had managed to catch himself with his hands, but still felt the pressure of his hurt ribs as the impact jostled his side. His sharp intake of breath didn’t help the pain in his side, or the sharp pain he felt in his heart. 

 

He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the lights above his head. His eyes glazed over as he let out another breath, softer this time. He brought his hands to his eyes and rubbed at them, pressing the palms of his hands into his closed eyes. 

 

“God, I  _ really _ love him,” he whispered to himself, before letting out a wet laugh. He had almost let it slip in his argument with Keith, before he had even admitted it to himself. He moved his hands away and opened his eyes to feel a tear escape and roll down his face. He stared at the ceiling again for a second before thinking,  _ Okay Lance, you can do this!  _ and pulling himself off the floor. 

 

Lance made sure to pay attention to where he was placing his feet, keeping his hand against the wall to feel the interesting texture again, but keeping his mind on walking, and not up in the clouds. His heart was still thumping, there was no changing that, and he could feel his cheeks burning. He shook his head as he turned the corner and opened the doors to the medbay. 

 

“Lance, my boy, good to see you!” Coran called out when he heard the door open. 

 

Lance looked over and saw that Coran hadn’t even bothered to look up from the tray he was organizing. “How did you know it was me?” he called out. 

 

Coran laughed but only responded with, “I always know when it’s you.” He met Lance’s confused gaze before continuing, “you stomp around like an angry ralfnore when you're distracted.”

 

“Wh- uh, no! I do not!” Lance spluttered in response, crossing his arms across his chest. 

 

Coran laughed again before saying, “I’m afraid you do my boy.”

 

Lance huffed before saying, “Ugh fine. My mom used to say the same thing and two times is a pattern, so I probably can’t argue with you.” Coran’s gaze softened at the mention of Lance’s mother as Lance continued, “Anyway, what did you need me for?”

 

“Right, yes,” Coran said, setting down the utensils in his hand, letting the clatter to the tray he was inspecting before striding over to Lance while explaining, “Since you were the one who helped Keith after he got out of the pod, I wanted to know what exactly you did to help him.” 

 

“Ahh sure, we’ll have to see if I can remember everything.” 

 

“That’s all good and fine. We just need to make a list of things to pick up next time we stop off at the space mall.” They spent the next thirty minutes going through all of the medical supplies, Lance doing his best to remember what had been used and recording things that Coran told him to write down. 

 

“Wait, is Raxcorflo spelled R-A-X-”

 

“No, no!” Coran cut him off, “ _ Raps _ coreflo. R-A-P-S-C-O-R-E-F-L-O.”

 

Lance wrote it out as Coran dictated to him. 

 

“Alright, Lance. That should finish us up for today,” Coran said, shutting the door to the medicine closet. 

 

“Really?” Lance asked, “We’ve only been cleaning for half an hour!”

 

“I’m still not sure exactly what an hour was, but yes, it was shorter than usual. You’ve been working hard and spending a lot of time here lately, so I’d like to let you free to do what you’d like.” Coran said, turning around and picking up the instruments he had been inspecting when Lance first walked in. 

 

Lance’s inner monologue crept out of his mouth before he could stop himself. “But what if I can’t do who- _ what _ I want?”

 

Coran spun around, turning his attention back to Lance, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

 

Lance took a deep breath and sighed.  _ I did not mean to say that. _

 

“I just mean- I- uh,” he began, “How do you know when what you’re doing is right for everyone involved? What happens when y- when you do something and it’s the wrong thing and it goes wrong and it’s  _ your fault?” _

 

Lance had started pacing as his rambling got more confusing. Coran walked over and laid a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance, are you still upset about what happened on Seifront?”

 

“What?” Lance choked, taken aback.

 

“I know you were really upset about Keith and thought his injuries were your fault, but I can say that there is no way he’s mad at you. He cares about you deeply, his action in getting in the way was his choice, and his choice alone. Don’t take that choice away from him. It’s obvious he would do anything to protect you.”

 

_ And I would do anything to protect him. _

 

“I know you would, my boy.”

 

Lance paled, “Did I say that out loud?”

 

“I’m afraid you did,” Coran laughed, rubbing his hand on Lance’s shoulder before dropping it off. 

 

“Quiznak.”

 

“Let me ask you a question, have you told any of this to Keith?”

 

Lance chuckled awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his head and ducking his eyes out of Coran’s eyeline. “I haven’t exactly had the chance to. My, uh,  _ feelings _ are a new development.”

 

“Really?” Coran asked, turning his wide eyes towards Lance.

 

“I had no clue, before Seifront. Well really before  _ today.  _ I mean, I knew part of me liked him but I didn’t know to this extent...” Lance trailed off. 

 

“I think you should tell him.” Coran said quietly, his voice losing it’s normal showmanship goofiness it usually carried. 

 

“I don’t know, I don’t want to ruin our relationship, or the team. It could ruin Voltron.” Lance sighed as he felt the pin-prick of tears forming behind his eyes. 

 

“I think you are trivializing yours and his feelings. You both care too much about each other and the team to let it interfere, even if something were to happen between you. As long as you’re serious about this- whatever it is- you won’t let it interfere. You’re so brave on the battlefield, watching you blossom into a fantastic marksman has been one of the greatest pleasures I’ve had in my life,” Coran continued. “You need to be brave here too.”

 

Lance could feel the tears finally overflowing from his eyes, making a clear path down his face and over his trembling lips. 

 

“Thank you,” he let out shakily before pulling Coran into a tight hug.

 

“Of course, Lance. Anytime you need to talk, I am here,” Coran said as he returned Lance’s embrace. He patted Lance on the back before letting him go.

 

“Now, go get him. With his current physical status, I’m sure him and Shiro are done sparring by now.”  

 

Lance gave Coran a smile before almost sprinting out of the room, “Bye, Croan!” He shouted over his shoulder as he closed the door behind him. He was running through the hall when he ran smack into something. 

 

For the second time that day, Lance found himself staring at the ceiling lights in the cold castle hallway. He let out a small wheeze as he impacted the ground, quickly followed by a groan. His vision was dazed again from impact and his eyes struggled to focus as a dark shape hovered over him. Luckily, he could hear just fine. 

 

“Lance! Woah, dude, are you okay?” Hunks concerned voice floated through his ears. 

 

“Hey, bud,” Lance said as he rubbed at his sore side. He felt a gentle hand reach down and grab his shoulder before he was hoisted in the air. Back on his feet again, his eyes focused on Hunk’s concerned expression. 

 

“What’s the hurry?” 

 

“I was on my way to tell Keith that I like him- OH MY GOD! HUNK! I have to go!” Lance said, shoving at Hunk as he sprinted around him. 

 

“Hah! About time!” Hunk called after him, “Good luck!”

 

Lance sprinted away, running like he was diving head first into battle. He skidded around the corner, gliding across the floor, and found his footing before continuing. His feet found purchase on the slick floor as he pitched forward, finding his balance just in time to keep running. 

 

_ What am I going to say? How is he going to react? Should I kiss him first and then talk or talk first and maybe kiss? What if this is the only chance I get to kiss him and I blow it by telling him I’m in lo- _

 

Lance’s thoughts were cut off suddenly as he skidded to a halt in front of the training room. His mind fell silent as the sound of his own heartbeat filled his ears. He slid the door open and walked inside. When he walked in he was met with the sound of quiet laughter and saw Keith and Shiro laying on the floor near each other. 

 

Between wheezing laughter, he could hear Shiro saying, “a- and the one time you thought you would microwave the spoon t- to be able to warm up your ice cream and you put it in the microwave on a plastic plate.”

 

Keith giggling on the floor next to Shiro, his goggles glinting in the lights as he moved his head to look at his brother, “You said go ahead when I asked if I could, you ass!”

 

“Hey! It was a better way for you to learn rather than me just saying no.”

 

“The whole kitchen smelled like burnt plastic for a week, even after we pitched the microwave!” Keith’s was rising and falling with the deep breaths he had been taking. 

 

Lance couldn’t tell if they had sensed him approaching, but when he was about 10 feet away, Keith sat up, displaying his messy hair and flushed face, before saying, “Hey, Lance.”

 

Shiro was still snickering as he sat up. He pushed himself off the ground in one swift move and said, “Let me go grab us some water, I’ll be right back.” He nodded at Lance as he left the room, closing the door behind them and leaving the boys bathed in a comfortable silence. 

 

“Hey,” Lance said, smiling like a goof down at Keith, “how are you feeling?”

 

“Good,” Keith said, “ well enough to kick your ass!”

 

Lance brought his had to his chest and gasped in mock disagreement. “Me, what ever did I do?”

 

Keith didn’t answer, but tugged on Lance’s hand and dragged him to the floor next to him. Lance let out an, “oof!” as the air left his lungs for the third time that day. He screwed his eyes shut at the pain before gently laying down on his back. 

 

“Shit, sorry,” Keith said, “are you okay.”

 

Lance shot him the dopiest smile he could muster, before saying, “Never been better.”

 

Keith smiled in return and Lance could make out the shyest imprint of dimples in his cheeks as Keith laid down on his back, keeping his face tilted towards Lance. 

 

_ Shit, I really  _ **_really_ ** _ love him.  _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out on tumblr at [klaiths](klaiths.tumblr.com) :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance finally get to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowza! look who's back and posting the last and final chapter at midnight! my plan is to do a short epilogue possibly, but we'll see! enjoy the last chapter and thanks for sticking around!

_ Shit, I  _ **_really_ ** _ love him. _

  


Keith’s reasons for loving Lance had built up over time, creating a tidal wave of all-consuming passion and want. The ever present fire that used to build to rage under his skin at the slightest of provocation seemed to die out anytime he was drowned in Lance’s oceanic eyes. The recent talks they had share only fueled Keith. He knew Lance returned his feelings, and it was time to do something about it. 

  


He stared into Lance’s eyes, as much as he could with his goggles on, as they laid on the floor, side by side. Lance’s smile drew his attention for a brief moment and he willed the goggles to concentrate on the sharp curves of his shining teeth.  _ I can do this. I can do this.  _ The mantra played in Keith’s brain as he reached a tentative hand out to rest on Lance’s palm between them. 

  


Lance let out a content sigh and wiggled his fingers between Keith’s. Keith’s heart was racing as if he were in the heat of battle, ready to kill for this boy like he had come so close to doing so many times before. Lance closed his eyes and sighed out a word this time. 

  


“Shiro,” he said, in a dreamy, far of voice. 

  


Keith froze, his hand pausing in its movements of gently stroking along Lance’s skin.  _ What? Shiro?! This can’t be happening.  _ He moved to distance himself from Lance, sitting up and ripping his hand away from Lance’s.  _ I can’t believe... all this time... _

  


Lance flailed his arms as he sat up as well. “Wait!” he squawked, reaching a hand to hold Keith in place for a moment, “shit. I meant Shiro is coming back and I don’t really want to have him walk in on...” He went silent for a moment. Keith turned to face him and found Lance looking away, face flushed and a sheepish smile hung from his lips. Keith squeezed Lance’s hand for a moment, before dropping it again. 

  


“Let’s go, then,” he said, standing and stretching in one fluid motion. He could feel his shirt rising as he did so, turning to look down at Lance over his shoulder to gauge his reaction. Lance’s jaw had dropped almost imperceptibly, but easily noticed if you knew what to look for- and Keith knew. The slight part of his lips, the still present flush, the barely there widening of his eyes...  _ This is going to be fun. _

  


Lance stood quickly, “Yes,” he said, almost knocking Keith over in his rush to get to his feet. “Let’s uhhh... go  _ talk. _ ” It seemed with every small piece given to each other, Lance had gotten more comfortable with touching Keith. He came around behind Keith, grabbing his waist and squeezing it for a brief moment, thumb slipping under the hem of Keith’s shirt and trailing just a moment before pulling away. He breezed by Keith, heading to the doors. 

  


“You coming?” he smirked over his shoulder at Keith, quickly turning back around and heading out. Keith scrambled to follow. In the hallway, he almost ran straight into Shiro, who much have finally been returning. 

  


“Aha,” he giggled out, peeking around his broad shoulders to catch Lance still sauntering down the hallway away from them, “I was just-”

  


Shiro patted him on the shoulder and cut him off with a laugh, “Go talk with Lance and stay hydrated. You had a pretty intense first day back, don’t need dehydration on top of that.” He handed Keith a water pouch before squeezing his shoulder and walking past. Keith felt his small small grow into a grin as tore off down the hallway. 

  


He wasn’t sure exactly where Lance would be, but he had a guess. When he got to his destination, he placed his hand on the panel outside Lance’s door, waiting for it to slide open. He peeked inside, vision trained on Lance’s empty bed as he stepped into the room.  _ Where is- _

  


“Boo!!” Lance yelled as he jump out from next to the door. Keith jumped, and turned around, hitting Lance lightly.

  


“Don’t! Do! That!” each word was accompanied by a light punch to Lance’s abdomen. “You know I can’t see shit out of the sides of these,” he said, gesturing to the contraption on his face. 

  


“Oh sooooorry,” Lance said, doing his best to let a fake pout grace his face before sliding into a satisfied smirk, “I won’t do it again.”

  


“Stop that,” Lance said, resting his hands on Keith’s shoulders, “I know you’d be squinting at me if I could see your eyes, knock it off.” 

  


Keith drew his eyebrows in further, “and if I don’t?”  _ This is flirting, right? We’re flirting? _

  


Lance froze for a moment, eyes widening as he took a step back and coughed. “Yeah, dumbass, this is flirting.”

  


“Shit, did I say that outloud?”

  


“Yeah.”

  


“Well, you should know how I feel about you then. Any chance we can skip over the awkward confession part?” Keith hoped Lance would at least concede to that. 

  


“Bup bup bup! I’ve waited too long to tell you how I feel about you so you’re just going to have to grin and bear it Mister, ‘I’m Keith and I’ve never talked about feelings in my life.’” Lance’s hands migrated down to Keith’s arms, gently stroking up and down in harsh contrast to his mocking tone. 

  


Keith took a shuddering breath, “Yeah, well...” He could feel himself beginning to shake, overcome with the finality of the situation he was in. 

  


“Hey,” Lance said, tilting his chin up ( _ when did I look down?) , _ “we’re in this together, yeah? Partners.”

  


Keith was still shaking, and his voice reflected it clearly. “Y-yeah,” he managed to get out, “p-partners.” 

  


“Let’s get you sitting, you must be exhausted,” Lance said, leading Keith over to his bed by the shoulders. Once he was seated, Lance began unclasping his boots, shaking them off his legs and feet. The act was so supremely intimate, Keith wondered for a second what he did in a past life to deserve such soft things, when all he had given this reality was a cold shoulder. 

  


Lance shucked off his shoes before clambering on the bed next to Keith. Instead of staying in a seated position, like Keith had, he immediately flopped back, letting out another deep sigh. Keith leaned back and turned to face Lance. 

  


“I gotta say,” Lance started, “this is much better than the cold training room floor.”

  


Keith chuckled, “Hah, yeah.” He moved his hand between them, resting it in chasm that was created between them. Lance understood, and laced his fingers with Keith’s without looking. 

  


Keith opened his mouth to get back to the subject at hand, but any attempt to speak was cut off by Lance’s sweet tone, “How are you feeling?” His eyebrows knit together as he stroked his thumb across the skin peeking out of Keith’s glove. 

  


“I’m good. How are your ribs?”

  


Lance let out a small laugh, eyes crinkling up with the movement of his smile, “The pain isn’t the reason I’m feeling so dizzy right now.” Keith gripped his hand tighter. 

  


“Kei-” he began.

  


“I think I’m in love with you.” Keith all but blurted out. It was a soft word vomit that had been creeping up the back of his throat for hours, days, weeks, and had finally reared its ugly head. Keith immediately covered his face, removing himself from Lance’s grasp.

  


“Shit,” he began, “I didn’t mean to- I just- I- fuck.”

He felt Lance’s hands gently pull his away from his face, his smirk softened into a small private smile, just for Keith. 

  


“Well, I can do you one better: I know I’m in love with you.” Keith let out a watery laugh, his body reacting to the want for tears that his ducts couldn’t produce at the moment. He set his hands on Lance’s shoulder as he continued to breathe heavy. Lance slid one of his hand underneath Keith’s cheek, gently cupping his face. 

  


“Keith,” Lance started, moving his other hand mirror the softness on the other side of Keith’s face, “do you trust me?”

  


“Of course,” he said, with absolutely no hesitation. 

  


Lance leaned in slowly and carefully, giving Keith a chance to pull away or say no. Keith met him halfway, invading his space and pushing his face towards Lance. He saw Lance close his eyes with anticipation, eyelashes gently kissing his cheeks as he sucked in a breath. He leaned in farther and-

  


“Ouch,” Lance whispered, pulling away from Keith, “uhhh your goggles aren’t very conducive to... uh... this activity.”

  


Keith lets out a bright laugh, settling his hands on Lance's shoulders and pushing him away for a moment. “If you can’t say it, then you shouldn’t be doing it.”

  


“Who are you, my high school health teacher?” Lance asked mockingly, sitting up in indignation. 

  


“Yes I am, not repeat after me,” Keith started, pausing to clear his throat before he put on his best authoritative teacher voice, which was lacking in many ways, “ **Kissing** .”

  


Lance let out a shocked gasp, putting his hand to his chest, “My, my, Mr. Kogane! Such foul language from such a pretty, young diplomat.”

  


“I’m no diplomat and you know it,” He responded, and oh did they. Keith had already been mocked relentlessly by the entire team on multiple occasions because of his inability to communicate with other aliens effectively.  He can clearly hear Pidge’s voice in head saying, “ _ You’re an alien, Keith! How can you not even go one dinner without getting a glass of- what is that? Blood?- thrown on you?”  _ followed closely by Lance’s response, “ _ He has the social graces of a baby, if that. At least it’s acceptable for babies to jerks- Keith has no excuse.” _ That evening had devolved into a fun night in after they had been escorted off the planet. 

  


“You with me?” Lance asked, pulling Keith out of his reprieve.

  


“Yeah.”

  


“Okay.”

  


“Yeah.”

  


“Keith?”

  


“Yeah?”

  


“Don’t hate me,” Lance began, as he slowly lifted his hands to Keith’s face again ( _ Why would I hate him? We already went over this I lo-)  _ and slowly began unstrapping his goggles. Keith took a deep breath and sent Red a message, “ _ Turn off the connection,”  _ and was instantly met by darkness. His heart rate increased, and he could hear it pounding in his ears. He could no longer see Lance, but he could feel him all around. The soft caress against his cheek as the goggles were slowly lifted away, the slight press of Lance’s knee against his leg as he turned to put Keith’s goggles on the nightstand, the return of his soft hands, framing Keith’s face now over just bandages instead of clunky machinery. 

  


“You good?” Lance asked, stroking his thumbs along Keith’s cheeks.  _ He does that a lot,  _ Keith mused. 

  


“I am now,” he said, pulling out his best sultry tone he could do and missing by a mile. Instead of the deep timbre he was intending, his voice came out soft and croaky. It didn’t help that as he said those words, he reached up, cupping Lance’s hand to his face. 

  


“Okay,” Lance said.

  


“Yeah,” Keith replied. 

  


Lance hesitated for a moment, his thumbs stopped stroking and Keith could feel him shift away again. 

  


“Hey,” he said, grabbing at Lance’s arm and pulling him closer, “I love you.”

  


Lance let out what was best described as an anxious chuckle, “Yeah.”

  


“Even if you’re a bad kisser.”

  


Lance scoffed, moving one hand down to Keith’s shoulder and pulling him in while muttering, “I’ll show  _ you,  _ bad kisser.”

  


_ I can’t believe that worked. No, wait, yes I can. _

  


Their lips met in an unspectacular meld of soft skin and rouch movement. Keith couldn’t see, but he could feel something was off.  _ Is it the angle? _ He grabbed Lance’s face, tilting his head ever so slightly and-  _ Ahh.  _ They sat for a moment, holding themselves against the other, lips still but pressed together in a comfortable manner. 

  


The pressure wasn’t enough for Keith, so he sat up from his hunched over position and scooched closer to Lance. His path was stopped as his legs bumped into Lance’s. He let out a frustrated sigh and he traced down Lance’s torso to his legs, to discover the pretzel they had turned themselves into. 

  


“Woah,” Lance said as Keith’s hands made their way lightly over his waistband, “we just kissed, I don’t think I’m ready for-”

  


“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Keith replied grabbing at Lance’s knees and holding tight as he sat back, splaying his own legs in front of him.

  


“I’ll have you know my mind  _ lives in the gutter.  _ There’s no escape, not even for a pretty boy like y-”

  


“Can you stop fidgeting for a sec?” Keith said, feeling his way around behind him, attempting to scoot back to make himself comfortable by spreading his legs out. 

  


“What are you doing there, mullet man?” Lance asked, finally taking stock of the situation unfolding in front of him. “Trying to get away from me already?” he said softer, a hint of disappointment creeping into his voice. 

  


“No,” Keith replied, “I can’t see-”

  


“Well, yeah, that’s obvi-.”

  


“Stop. I can’t see, so I can’t lead. That position wasn’t working, I didn’t have anything to ground myself.” With one final scoot, Keith’s back hit the wall at the foot of the bed. He grabbed at Lance’s knees again, tugging them closer to fit around Keith’s sides. Lance must have received the message, for it only took one quick tug behind Lance’s knees before he settled quickly in Keith’s lap. 

  


“There,” Keith said, “better.”

  


“Not as lost?” Lance asked, hitting the nail on the head.

  


“Yeah.”

  


“Good,” He replied before framing Keith’s face once more and leaning down to seal his lips over Keith’s.  _ Oh. _

  


The angle was good- brilliant. Lance’s nose didn’t dig into his face, and their lips weren’t awkwardly smashed or smushed together. They glided against each other for a moment, Keith’s hands sliding into Lance’s hair. He trailed his hands around the back of Lance’s head, searching for the perfect spot. He knew he had found it when he heard a small whine escape Lance’s lips. One hand was curled into the top of Lance’s head while the other was curled around the back of his neck, thumb resting on his cheek, just by his ear. 

  


The kissing devolved from there. Keith’s slow pace seemed to stir into a frenzy as he tilted Lance’s head to deepen the angle. The chaste kisses that had started this fiasco had turned to deep, lingering draws of lips and fast quick turns of heads. They were both panting when they finally pulled apart. 

  


“Wow,” Keith said, colors dancing to the front of his vision, shocking him as he gasped for breath. 

  


“Yeah,” Lance said, forgoing the flirty comeback for a quick kiss to Keith’s forehead.

  


“That was...”

  


“A lot,” Lance settled on. 

  


“Yeah,” Keith said blindly groping around for Lance’s hand. He grabbed Lance’s leg and elbow before Lance gave in and cupped Keith's hands in both of his. 

  


“We have about an hour before lunch,” Lance said.  _ I can hear the smirk in his voice. _

  


“So?”

  


“So...” Lance said in a softer tone, leaning into Keith’s ear, “wanna take a nap?”

  


“Fuck yes.” Keith hadn’t realized how tired he was again until the prospect of sleep ( _ sleeping with Lance)  _ was dangled in front of him. 

  


“Okay, I’ll lie back and pull you with me. Sound good?”

  


Keith nodded, trailing his hands up to Lance’s shoulders as Lance began to lean back. When Lance was fully horizontal, Keith well on his way, he tucked himself up under Lance’s arm, resting his head on Lance’s chest. He could hear a steady, if not a bit quick, heartbeat under his ear. 

  


As Keith drifted off, he felt a pair of lips at his hairline as Lance muttered, “Love you.”

  


He managed a quick, “Love you too,” before he succumbed to the lustrous call of a rare, mid-morning nap. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if this was at all confusing or didn't make sense! i wrote it in stages and the last chapter was as bit of a late one. let me know if there's any major glaring plot holes! comments are always appreciated! 
> 
> again, thanks for sticking around until the end! i hope you enjoyed this crazy mess i created <3


End file.
